Trackless - FSN: No route
by WriteShop
Summary: Shirou dreams of being a hero, of saving everybody, or at least those he loves. But what if that doesn't work out? Not in a dramatic, life changing fashion, but in one that leaves him adrift, stumbling from one FSN route to another. (This story starts about two years before the fifth Grail war)
1. Chapter 1

^Trackless^

Shirou wasn't an idiot. At least not a complete idiot.

Sakura had been coming to help him out around the house for over a year now. It had started when he got sick at Kiritsugu's funeral, and had continued even after he got better. She would come over in the morning before school, and then again in the evening, to help him cook.

At first, he had figured she was just being helpful. After all, being helpful came naturally to him as well. But then he noticed something strange: she wasn't going over to anybody else's house to help them cook. As a matter of fact, other than her older brother, she didn't really hang out with anybody except him.

Slowly, he put two and two together and got something close to four (possibly helped by Fuji-ne's knowing smirks whenever she saw the two of them together).

Shirou was washing the dishes and passing them to Sakura to dry. Fujimura was in a food coma on the couch as the news lulled her to sleep. It was almost summer break, and Shirou figured he should say something.

"Um, Sakura? You know the Tanabata festival is in couple of days."

"Hmm? Yes, I think it is." Sakura agreed good naturedly. Honestly, she really didn't pay much attention to the cultural festivals. Her life revolved around her home. Specifically, surviving it. She had compartmentalized herself, and Sakura, the Sakura that was here now, did not think too much about anything that did not involve Shirou and school work. It is what let her be so cheerful and upbeat all of the time.

"Would you like to go with me?" Shirou paused.

"Oh, that sounds like fun. I bet they will have a variety of food. We can pick up a couple of new recipes."

"No, I mean like a date. As a boyfriend / girlfriend sort of thing." Shirou wasn't certain what the protocol for asking a girl out was (Who could he ask? Fujiimura? Shudder in horror). The way this was going, he was obviously doing it wrong, but he didn't have any other options.

So he doggedly pressed on.

"Oh." Sakura froze, her eyes huge. If she had thought things through, this would have been a logical thing to expect, as their relationship progressed. But she hadn't: being with Shirou was an escape from the other part of her life. The one she didn't think about. "Um. ok. I have to check with grandfather, but I think so."

Shirou was a little disappointed at the tepid response. _'_ _D_ _id I misread the situation?'_ _H_ e hoped that he hadn't messed things up. He was friendly with a lot of people, but Sakura was one of his few close friends. The pair continued with the after dinner clean up, but now there was a tension that prevented them from talking.

Shirou kept glancing at Sakura, trying to work out what he had done wrong. Which is why he was looking as Sakura reached up to the top shelf to put away the serving tray. As she reached up, her sleeve slid back, revealing an ugly bruise on her arm – three reddish brown blotches in a sea of green.

Shirou dried his hands, "Sakura, who did that to you?" His voice was cold.

Sakura quickly tugged the sleeve back down, "Um, it's nothing, Sempai." She refused to meet his eyes.

"It's not nothing. I was in Kendo club in middle school, and even though we wore protective gear, sometimes a wild swing would slip past the pads. I know how hard you have to get hit to get a bruise like that."

Sakura shrugged, glancing up. Shirou was still staring intently. She had never seen him this focused before. He wasn't angry. He was… she wasn't certain. Shirou reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Please tell me. I want to help"

"You can't help," she replied quietly.

"Is it… your grand father?"

Sakura was quiet for a long time, before replying. "Shinji."

"Has he done this before?" There was a cold anger in Shirou's voice. Shinji used to be a friend... but if he was hurting Sakura, he would have to do … something. He wasn't certain what.

Sakura shrugged, "Once or twice. It's not important." She continued looking at her hands, refusing to meet Shirou's gaze.

"Not important? Sakura, you're important to me, and if somebody is hurting you, I want to know."

Sakura smiled at the statement, "Sempai, I will deal with this. Shinji… I can handle Shinji." She pulled herself together, looking as poised and confident as always.

Shirou nodded. He trusted Sakura. If she said she could deal with it, she would, "Ok. Just tell your grandfather, ok?"

She nodded and gave him a big smile. "I am looking forwards to going to the Tanabata with you, Sempai."

Sakura left shortly afterwards. As soon as she was out of sight of the Emya's house, she did a little dance. She was important to Shirou!

^Trackless^

The afternoon of the festival, Sakura was almost skipping as she left the Matou mansion. The decrepit hulk sat on what had once been an upscale street, but in the past few decades, the neighbors on either side of the mansion had moved out and left the properties to be taken back by nature. There was something... uncomfortable about the neighborhood. As she headed to Shirou's, Shinji came out the door as well. "Don't spend too much time at Emya's. Grandfather wants you home by 8."

"Ok." Actually, grandfather didn't care. But Shinji liked telling Sakura what to do, and she found it easier to just go along with it. Shinji wasn't real happy with Sakura spending so much time with Emya. He didn't like Sakura having somebody besides him to focus on. It was part of why he and Emya were drifting apart. As he was about to turn to go towards the house, it occurred to him, belatedly, that Sakura had been dressed a lot fancier than her usual wont.

He shrugged. He would figure it out later – right now he had a date. It was amazing what the right attitude and the Matou name could accomplish. The fact that the family was practically broke now was irrelevant – girls were stupid.

^Trackless^

Shirou led Sakura through the row of stalls, towards the stand he had spotted this afternoon, when he had came by to scout out the place for their date (Since it was very important that everything go right, a little extra work had been the only reasonable option). This store sold jewelry, including hair decorations, so Shirou wanted to get Sakura something there.

"Um, Sakura, you look very nice." Honestly, Shirou didn't really pay much attention to such things, but he wanted to let Sakura know how he felt about her. He wasn't certain how to do that, but this seemed like a start.

"Thank you, Sempai." Sakura didn't have many fancy clothes. She didn't concern herself with things - most of her clothes were either school uniforms or plain dresses that would hide how disgusting and corrupted she was. But it felt surprisingly good to hear Shirou compliment her. She unobtrusively straightened her sweater.

"Here it is!" Shirou stopped in front of a booth that sold all sorts of teen jewelry. And they had a large selection of headbands, clips, combs and hair pins. "I noticed that you always have something in your hair, so I thought you might want to get something here."

"That was very thoughtful of you, Sempai" Sakura's face almost glowed with happiness. She didn't deserve this, but that didn't mean that she wasn't going to accept this unlooked for treasure, and that is what interactions with Shirou were to her.

After doing a little shopping, the happy couple continued on down the lane.

"Do you know which high school you are going to next year?" Shirou asked. He suspected it would be the same as him. Fuyuki only had a couple of options, and unless you were into engineering or tested really well, you went to the Fuyuki Regular School.

"I am going to go to the same school as you, Sempai." Sakura tentatively reached out and took Shirou's hand.

^Trackless^

Shirou was ecstatic. Night had fallen, and they were still walking around, holding hands. They had covered all of the festival area, but neither teen wanted the evening to end, so they had continued on to all the regular shops that lined edges of the festival streets. These were doing a booming business as well, cashing in on the bounty of customers.

"What are you doing here?"

Shirou turned in surprise at the angry tone coming from behind him.

Shinji stormed up the sidewalk, brushing past people strolling. "Grandfather wanted you home at eight. You're late!" He reached to grab Sakura's free hand. He was furious: that slut he was supposed to have had a date with had stood him up. And as he finally headed home, what does he see? His stupid sister walking with Emya!

Shirou interposed himself, holding out one arm to block Shinji while continuing to hold Sakura's hand with the other. "Calm down, Shinji. We just lost track of time. There is no need to get upset."

"Out of the way, Emya," Shinji pushed Shirou's arm out of the way, at the same time grabbing Sakura and pulling. "I'll tell you when there is reason to be angry!"

Sakura staggered, not wanting to go, but not wanting to resist and cause a scene. Shinji gave her a sharp yank. "Come on!"

Sakura stumbled and slipped off of the sidewalk just as an oncoming Honda took the corner too fast. The driver didn't have time to slam on the breaks before colliding with the falling girl.

"Oh.. Sakura, I didn't mean to..." Shinji stood in horror. He wasn't certain what to do. Grandfather would kill him.

Shirou and the surrounding bystanders rushed over to Sakura. The Honda driver leaped out of his car, "I'm sorry, I didn't see her! Is she...?" he wrung his hands uselessly.

A police officer pushed through to see if he could help, while a second police officer tried to disperse the crowd.

"Officer," Shirou called out. His voice was controlled, but he was filled with a cold fury. "Arrest that man – this wasn't an accident." He pointed at Shinji.


	2. Chapter 2

Before I start, I would like to make one comment about reviews - I love reviews, they help motivate me to write more.

But PLEASE leave signed reviews so I can reply, or ask for clarification on your comments

* * *

Rin Tohsaka faced off against Kirei in a fighting stance, breathing hard, but not panting. They had been sparring for some time. Kirei stepped back and glanced at the clock on the far wall.

"I have to leave, so we're done for now. You did adequately." They were in the training ground behind her house, where Kirei taught her martial arts (on those days that he wasn't teaching her magecraft). In both disciplines he tested more than taught. If Rin hadn't been a genius, with access to a huge library, she would never have progressed. "I will come inspect your magecraft tomorrow. You should go get cleaned up." He picked up a wet towel from the bucket in the corner of the sparring area and wiped down his face and hands. "Your sister died." He added the last in the same nonchalant tone of voice as everything else.

"Wait, what?" Rin stopped, stunned. She had had almost no contact with Sakura, especially this year, what with them being in different schools. "How? When did this happen? Did you know the whole class..." And her bastard of a mentor didn't mention it until now.

Kirei watched Rin's expression with a smirk. The shock transitioning to horror and then anger was always such a exquisite experience to observe. It was better than going to the theater. "The funeral starts about now. If you rush, you can just make it."

Rin dropped her towel with a snarl and ran to get changed.

Kirei watched. It was unfortunate that he had to go home now, but if he was still here when Rin returned, she would try to kill him, and there was no amusement to be had in beating up little girls.

^Trackless^

Rin walked in after the main ceremony was done. The funeral was being held in a small hall at Ryuudo shrine, with the front holding a picture of Sakura – it looked like an official school photo – along with the urn of her ashes and a couple of bouquets of flowers. People were milling about, coming up to individually pay their respects. She looked around the room, slightly out of breath, slightly out of sorts: the cab had dropped her off outside the temple, but she had had to run up the stairs. Most of the people in the room were middle school kids – Sakura's classmates - and teachers. Rin didn't see any family. She felt like an outsider – this was her sister, but she didn't recognize a single person at the funeral. She wasn't even certain who was there because they were her friends and who had just come out of a sense of duty. The only person she sort-of recognized was a red headed boy from her school, who was standing in front of the shrine.

Rin waited until he was done before walking over to him. She vaguely knew who he was - she remembered seeing him around the athletic field, trying to do the high jump - but she had created her 'school idol' persona specifically to keep people at arm's length. But of all the people there, he was the only one who wasn't a complete stranger. "Did you know Sakura well?" She asked, coming to stand beside him.

Shirou glanced at her, surprised to see Rin Tohsaka here. She was a first year like him, but had already garnered a reputation as a 'school idol'. _'But I guess that's why everybody respects her – she does stuff like this.'_ Shirou smiled, "Yeah. We have been, were, friends for about two years. We had just started dating when she died."

Rin froze in shock. Her sister had had a boyfriend? She realized how little she knew about her life. She didn't even know how she had died. But she couldn't just come out and ask that. Not here.

^Trackless^

Shirou was trudging home after school. One more week of class, and then it was finals. He was still depressed about Sakura, and a little distracted, which was why it took him a moment to realize that somebody was walking next to him.

"You ready for the math final?" Rin Tohsaka asked.

"Not really. I am not very good at math."

Rin nodded. She knew that - he wasn't in her honors math class. But she also knew that that wasn't the real reason he wasn't ready. "Come on, I'll help you study." She glanced over at Shirou. He was about to balk, so she added, "It's my duty, as the class representative." Technically, she wasn't his class representative – that was Issei – but the statement felt truthful, which is all that really mattered.

"Thanks!" Shirou graced her with a smile.

Rin scowled. He was far too trusting. He would never survive if he were a Magus. But it would make learning about Sakura's life easier.

Just then, they rounded the corner and approached a large old Japanese estate. Rin quirked an eyebrow. She had never thought that Emya came from money. But his house was at least as large as the Tohsaka estate. As Shirou opened opened the front door for her, she felt a wash of cold water over her spine. ' _A Bounded Field? Is he a Magus?_ _'_

^Trackless^

"You don't have to make dinner," Rin protested for the third time. They were in the Emya dining room. She kept surreptitiously glancing about – nothing seemed to indicate 'Magic'. Maybe it was a left-over from the previous owner?

"It's the least I can do for all your help. And besides, I have to cook for myself and Fuji-nee anyways." He didn't want to admit it, but having Rin here had really helped him focus, pulling him out of his funk. Without her, he would have probably wasted the whole afternoon trying futility to get a handle on his magic again instead of studying for his finals.

Rin was just preparing herself to ask the boy if he was a magus when the front door slammed open, "Shirou! Feed me!" Fujimura never really changed, but that was partly on purpose. She didn't want Shirou dwelling too long on sad things, so she figured her usual vivacious antics would help cheer him up. "Shirou… who is this?" She was surprised to find another girl sitting primly at the table, putting a book into her school bag.

"Hello. Taiga Fujimura, this is my classmate, Rin Tohsaka. She is helping me study for finals." Shirou called out from the kitchen. Before Taiga could say anything in response, Shirou interrupted, "Fuji-nee, I want to practice kendo with you."

"What? Why? Are you rejoining the Kendo team?" Taiga asked excitedly. Kendo was near and dear to her heart.

"Maybe. But it's more that I am not going to let somebody I care about get hurt again. Kendo training is a good place to start." The way he said it, it was clear that Kendo was not going to sate Shirou for long.

Taiga shrugged, "Ok, I'll make time." She wasn't certain if it was a good idea, but she remembered how she had felt after Kiritsugu had passed away, and how throwing herself into kendo helped her deal with it. It might not be healthy, but it had worked.

"So," Taiga turned to Rin with a certain feline intensity, "you are a friend of Shirou's?"

Currently, feline meant 'a tiger that will maul you for the wrong answer', not 'a kitten that wants to play games with you.'

"Not exactly. I am in the same year as him at school, but we never much crossed paths. I am a class representative, so when I saw him at Sakura's funeral I felt I had a responsibility to help."

"Were you a relation of Sakura Matou?"

"Yes. Not a very close one, but sadly I think I was her closest family," Rin frowned. She had wormed the details of what had happened from Shirou during the course of the afternoon. She couldn't believe that Sakura's own brother.. She hadn't known! But she should have. Sakura was her sister!

"It's very sad. But I am glad Shirou has somebody like you to look after him." Taiga gave Rin her seal of approval.

"It's not like that!" Rin protested before Shirou could. Her impervious school idol persona was still a work in progress, and had some chinks in it. "But we did work out that I would help him prepare for his finals."

Taiga nodded. She was still a little skeptical of this overly proper girl that had just popped up when Shirou was at his most vulnerable, but she didn't seem like she was trying to worm her way into his affections or anything inappropriate. She would give her a chance.

"Dinner is served." Further discussion was interrupted by Shirou bringing out a serving tray with a simple meal: some fried fish, Soba noodles, rice and and a sauce, as well as a few veggies. Simple is a relative term: Shirou was currently working on western meals, but with a new guest, he decided to fall back to recipes that he was good at.

"Itadakimasu," Rin automatically replied, before sampling the first dish. Rin had been living on her own for several years, since her mother had passed away, and she had gotten used to cooking for herself (though it was an annoying chore, which is why she hadn't argued very hard against getting a free meal). But because of that she had also gotten a sense of what to expect when a teenager throws together a quick dinner.

This was not it.

She looked over at Shirou in surprise. "This is really good. Really, really good."

"Hmm-Hmm!" came the agreement from Taiga as she stuffed her mouth.

The evening went very smoothly from that point on.

^Trackless^

Rin knocked on Shirou's front door. It was the day after the last final. She had come just before lunch time, so as not to wake Shirou if he had decided to sleep in. Also, the chances of getting lunch were better this way. She swallowed in a Pavlovian response. But food wasn't the only reason she was here. She still wanted to soak up all the tidbits of her sister's life that she could, and it turned out that Shirou had been a huge part of it. And he was good company, but that wasn't really relevant.

The red head opened the door, dressed in an oil stained tee shirt and jeans. It was obviously an old shirt that he wore when he was working on projects, as it was too small for him. And archery had put a surprising amount of muscle on his upper body.

"Tohsaka? Finals are over." Shirou asked, puzzled.

Rin tore her gaze away from Shirou's chest and tried to refocus her thoughts. "You're a magus." She blurted.

"What?" Shirou looked slightly panicked. He knew from his father that he had to keep his magic use a secret, but he had never considered how to respond if somebody discovered him.

"Don't deny it." Rin hadn't meant to open the conversation in such an inelegant way, but she had gotten distracted, and it was done. So instead she continued on the attack, covering up her lack of poise by knocking Shirou off balance as well. It worked in martial arts, so it should work in conversation equally well. "I felt the bounded field when I first walked in. I didn't mention it, so as not to distract you from finals, but now we should talk." And Shirou really had needed all the help he could get with his classwork. He was smart, but he really hadn't spent much effort on his studies. His magecraft was probably the same.

"Uhm, ok. Come on in," Shirou let Rin inside. "I was just about to make lunch. Do you want some?"

"Yes, please." Rin followed Shirou into the kitchen, "So who is your instructor in magecraft?"

"I don't have one. I have been working on it on my own, though as you can imagine, it is slow going. I was hoping to find a tutor over summer break." His father had tried to discourage him from learning magecraft, so he had only dabbled in it a little because it was interesting. But now, he needed whatever tools he could find. Maybe he would never be a Hero of Justice – he was clearly a failure at that. But at the very least he would make sure that nobody else important to him died like Sakura.

"Well, I am the custodian for Fuyuki city, so let me see some of your work, and maybe I can recommend somebody." Rin replied airily, tying to sound worldly and knowledgeable. While it was technically true that she was the 'custodian' for Fuyuki, and that it was her responsibility to be the Clocktower's representative here, she had never done anything more than read the reports from the local magi (at least the ones that bothered to send in reports). Currently, there were three – a couple that owned a book store & dabbled in their spare time, and a distant Tohsaka cousin who was living at a retirement home. The Matou never sent in a report.

"Ok. Let's go." Shirou led the way through the building and back out the other side, into the courtyard. Rin was mildly surprised at how easily he acquiesced, without posturing or arguing. Magi were usually more prickly and protective of their work. But she was starting to get a sense for Shirou – he was an easygoing idiot.

In another words, the polar opposite of her (she was a genius, and possibly just a tiny bit controlling).

Shirou opened the door to a large shed, and walked in, leading the way around a cloth draped motorcycle and some gardening implements to a patch of floor littered with various odds and ends: tools, a vacuum cleaner, several lamps and a partially disassembled television set.

Rin's eyebrow twitched, _'what is this shit?'_ She couldn't make sense of what she saw – it looked like junk that had been salvaged from the trash by a crazy old man.

Shirou sat down and picked up a lamp. "The only skills I have are Structural Analysis and Reinforcement. The first is pretty easy, but I can't get Reinforcement to work right. Here let me show you."

Rin opened her mouth to tell Shirou that a magus shouldn't reveal his secrets so freely when she felt an odd pulse of mana from him – it was like the energy built up behind a dam for several seconds before bursting out and filling the lamp he was holding. The lamp glowed for a moment and then shattered into dust.

"What did you just do?"

"See? That happens two times out of three that try to strengthen something."

"No, I mean before that, before you release the mana."

Shirou looked confused, "I turned on my magic."

"What do you mean, 'turned my magic on'?" Rin interrupted. "How can your magic be 'off'?" She was really confused. This made no sense. In addition to her training with Kirei the jerk, she had read all the primers on magecraft, and was reading any Clocktower journal articles she could get in Japanese (her English wasn't good enough to read technical papers yet). And she had never heard of something like this.

Shirou continued to look puzzled, "I mean that I don't normally have enough magic to cast a spell, so I first have to generate the magic."

Rin placed her hands on either side of Shirou's head, completely ignoring propriety. "Do it again." She closed her eyes and concentrated, to better sense what craziness Shirou was doing.

Shirou concentrated, taking hold of a stripped screw driver.

"STOP THAT!" Rin almost shouted.

"What? Shirou looked confused.

"You were burning out one of your nerves, trying to use it as a magic circuit!" Rin looked aghast at the idiot in front of her. "Not only is that extremely dangerous, it's going to hurt!'

"Yeah, it hurts a little, but how else would I get the mana to cast a spell?"

"Baka!" she smacked Shirou over the head, "You're going to kill yourself! You have perfectly good mage circuits. Use them."

"I do?" Shirou asked in surprised.

Rin was becoming more and more horrified, "Who's the fucking idiot who taught you magic? I am going to find him and rip his head off through his sphincter!" The more agitated she got, the more her 'school idol' persona disintegrated, "Did he teach you to do this as some form of torture?" She could easily envision Kirei doing something like that.

"Uhm, Tohsaka," Shirou stood up, brushing Rin's hands off of his head, "My dad told me _about_ magic. But he didn't teach me magic itself – he didn't want me to be a magus. But after he passed away, I wanted to help people, so I taught myself."

Rin looked down abashed, "I'm sorry for yelling. But it is still a stupid, dangerous way to do magic. If you ever lose your concentration from the pain even momentarily, you will end up frying half your nerves." She sighed and looked up at the teen standing facing her. "Fine. I'll teach you. You win. But in return, you have to cook dinner."

"Ok," Shirou brightened.

* * *

And we'll break here (I know the chapter end is a little abrupt, but I wanted to get something out quick). Please review


	3. Chapter 3

Summer break was over, and the new school year had begun. Students flooded into the high school, chatting animatedly about what they had done over the summer. There was an energy in the air as everybody was excited to be back. Shirou wended his way though the crowd of students searching for their new homerooms (and old friends). He caught a glimpse of Tohsaka on the way, but she had been very firm that he was not to acknowledge her during school. Shirou thought it was silly, but then Taiga had made the same request – she was starting as a new teacher at his school, and she didn't want him to treat her any different than any other staff, to the point of not letting anybody know that she was practically family,

Women were strange.

"Issei!" Shirou waved to his friend, "How was your summer?"

"Not bad, though a little strange." Shirou's friend adjusted his glasses as they navigated through the river of other teens. Crowds made him uncomfortable. "We had a rash of orders for o-fuda to keep away evil spirits. We usually sell more of the 'good luck' or 'prosperity' charms. Nobody really wants the 'protection' O-fuda nowadays."

"Huh. That's strange. Are all the requests from the same place?"

Issei shrugged, "I don't know. Yesterday we got three requests from an apartment building on Fukuyama." He almost flinched as Rin Tohsaka walked past them, chatting with Ayako. "There is something seriously wrong with that girl," he whispered.

Shirou quirked an eyebrow. "She's not that bad." He wasn't certain what Issei's problem with Rin was, but having spent much of the summer with her, he wasn't taking it that seriously. The two of them had been getting together two or three times a week to work on magic. Once Shirou learned how to access his mana, he started pushing to see what he could accomplish. Unfortunately, the answer was still 'very little'.

Issei did not dignify that with a response. It was clear that that girl was a complete fake, and the way she had half the male population obsessing with her was just wrong. But propriety demanded that he show her respect, at least in public. He only referred to her as 'that witch' when in private.

"Maybe I'll take a walk down there and see if anything jumps out at me."

It took Issei a moment to switch tracks and realize that his friend was still focused on the previous topic. He gave a long suffering sigh, "Shirou, you're not a superhero. There are some things you can't help with. And I would rather you not get hurt." Seriously, Shirou needed to get a hobby or a girlfriend or something. The way he was always desperately looking for people to help wasn't healthy, even if it was useful: Issei was ashamed to admit he had taken advantage of his friend's flaw on several occasions – Shirou was good with repairs.

"Don't worry, I'll just look around. Do you want to come with me?"

"The student council is running a orientation for the incoming first years tomorrow, and we have the final planning meeting tonight. Sorry." Actually, he wasn't.

The school bell rang, and the students scuttled into their classrooms.

^Trackless^

"I can't believe you didn't invite me along," Rin fumed. She was walking with Shirou to Fukuyama, to check out the weird goings on there.

Shirou shrugged, "I didn't think that this was your sort of thing. And besides, don't you have a student council meeting?"

"I quit the council. I have to concentrate on my studies. And besides, they are too nosy."

"And you don't mind wandering around Fuyuki after dark, looking for who know what?"

"If there is something magical going on, it's my duty as the custodian to know about it." Rin snapped. She was still angry that Shirou hadn't invited her. She had spent all summer teaching him magic, turning him from a complete incompetent into, well, a sort of one trick pony. But still. She had been the one to pull that (limited) success off. In addition, she had thought that Shirou enjoyed her company. But here he was, first day of school, avoiding her (ok, maybe she had told him to do that, but still). Not that she was upset about that. She was a Magus, and didn't need anybody.

"Well, I appreciate you coming along." Shirou interrupted her internal maelstrom with a smile.

As Rin's expression brightened in turn, Shirou pointed down a narrow lane. "I think that's it." They were in a rundown section of Fuyuki, and the large tenement buildings leaned menacingly over the narrow streets.

"Uh. Something stinks." Shirou wrinkled his nose.

"I don't smell anything." Rin took another sniff.

"It's coming from over there," Shirou pointed off to the west side of the lane. The street was otherwise empty and quiet.

"There's a lei line there. I can feel it's thrum." Rin paused, "So do you sense magic as a smell? What do I smell like when I am casting?"

"Roses, with a hint of something pungent underneath."

"I'll give you 'pungent'!" Rin menaced Shirou with her fist. But secretly she was pleased.

A scream interrupted Shirou before he could reply. The teen immediately took of at a run.

"Wait, we don't know... Baka." Rin ran after the would-be hero.

Shirou rounded the corner into a narrow alley between two of the tenements, bring up the shinai that had appeared in his hand. In front of him a woman was backed up against a dumpster between two thuggish bruisers. There was something.. off about them. Their necks were too short, and their arms too long.

Without stopping to consider, Shirou lunged forward, bringing the shinai diagonally down onto the neck of the first assailant. The shinai snapped, but the thug dropped to his knees.

"Hey, what are you doing," the other man turned around in surprise. Before he could do anything more than that, Shirou hit him under the jaw with the broken shinai. As the man stumbled back, Shirou paused and punched him the way Tohsaka had showed him.

The first thug staggered up to his feet, stumbling into his buddy as he still wasn't capable of standing fully upright.

"Leave. Now." Shirou pronounced in a commanding tone as Rin ran up. The thugs decided that this wasn't fun anymore and ran. The entire confrontation had taken less than 10 seconds.

Rin walked over to the cowering woman. "Are you ok?" When she nodded, Rin whirled onto Shirou "And you! We need to talk!" She grabbed Shirou by his ear and dragged him off over the woman's protestations that she had appreciated the help.

"You reinforced your legs, didn't you? I told you not to. You're not ready for that: you can easily injure yourself. And where did that shinai come from? And don't go racing off like that - you aren't some superhero." Rin leaned in, one hand on her hip, the other wagging a finger very close to Shirou's nose. This was not the poised 'school idol'. This was the Rin that showed up periodically, when she was too distracted to give the 'appropriate' response.

"I only reinforced them half way. And the shinai? I don't know. It was just there." Shirou casually ignored the rest of Rin's rant.

"You're going to get hurt, you idiot. And I will not have that!"

"I didn't get hurt today. And I did some good." He smiled. He felt good. Very good, almost like he was floating, and no amount of berating from Rin would change that. Besides she wasn't really that angry. "Come on, lets go see if there are any magical threats."

Rin fumed. This was not why she had been teaching magecraft to the idiot. Not that she was exactly certain what her reason was, but it wasn't so that he could risk injuring himself, playing hero.

She was a very proper and responsible magus, so when she started tutoring Shirou, he became her responsibility. That meant he wasn't allowed to die doing something bone-headedly stupid. It would make her look bad. And who would cook her dinner then?

"Rin, pay attention – that's a telephone pole."

Rin jerked back just before walking into the obstruction. "You are a real pain, you know that? Let's finish here and go home. You owe me dinner for that stunt."

^Trackless^

As the school year progressed, Shirou slipped into a routine. Rin would drop by after school every other evening and check on his progress with his magecraft. He still couldn't do anything significant other than reinforcement, but he had developed a very fine sensitivity with that, to the point he could reinforce something just to the edge of destruction, especially swords. Rin still hated it when he used it on himself, but she did have to admit that he had a real knack for it.

But she continued to insisted that Shirou pretend that they didn't know each other when in school.

On the days Rin didn't come, Shirou worked on his swordsmanship in is back yard, seeing how well he could combine it with his reinforcement magic. He had thought about joining the kendo club, but by using structural grasping on the students weapons, he learned their styles to the point that he could defeat any of them without even reinforcing himself, So there was no point. Instead, he mostly practiced on his own, except for the occasional bout with Fuji-nee, when she had spare time.

^Trackless^

"Hey, Yuuna. You're here late." Shirou asked as he put his indoor shoes into his locker. He had stayed after school to do some repairs in the school gym – the left row of lights had gone out, and they were high enough up that you needed a ladder to replace them.

It had taking longer than expected, as it turned out that the lights were fine, but a mouse had chewed through the wire.

"Um, yeah. Choir ran a little late. We have a recital next week." Yuuna was a first year, and kind of mousy herself. Shirou wouldn't have butted into her business, except..

"You know, there have been a rash of muggings in the area. Do you want me to walk you home?"

"I.." she looked around. The locker area was empty, and every other light was turned off. The other girls in choir were all older and had know each other for years. They had gone off as a group without even realizing that they were leaving somebody behind. She glanced at the imposing red head. She had seen him around, but never spoken to him. But it was dark out, and the walk home, all by herself, would be scary. "I.. sure!" She smiled.

"I don't know if you grew up around here, but Fuyuki is actually a pretty safe city. That's why these attacks have been making the headlines so much – they are very atypical" Shirou followed as Yuuna led the way. He didn't mention that Rin suspected there was some magical component to the muggings. Whenever the two of them had investigated an area where an attack had taken place, they had felt some magical residue. And even non magicals could feel it: After each attack, the locals tended to order the 'protection' O-fuda that Issei had mentioned at the start of the year. While a little superstition was normal, this was more than that.

They walked out towards Fukuyama."Oh, I didn't know you lived out here." Many of the attacks had been close to this neighborhood. Shirou tensed, ready to create a shinai or an some other weapon. He had only recently figured out how to do that reliably. _'Rin will be pissed if anything happens and she's not here.'_ He didn't quite understand why – Rin didn't particularly like fighting or rescuing people, but she refused to let Shirou try to do it on his own. Shirou figured that she was just a very responsible person.

"Well, my home is just down the block, so I guess there is no need for you to come all this way." Yuuna smiled. If her mother saw her walking with a boy, she would never hear the end of the teasing.

Shirou nodded and was just about to say goodbye when some instinct warned him to throw himself forward. A hulking man dressed in old fashioned work clothes with a bowler hat on his head punched through where Shirou had been moments before.

"Eee!" Yuuna tried to shriek, to call for help, but it came out as a thin whine instead.

Shirou wasn't looking for help.

He reinforced his body and charged forward, a projected shinai in his hands. The magic came naturally to him now.

Shirou brought the bamboo sword across the attackers body, once twice, three times. The mugger staggered back, overwhelmed despite his size. The bamboo wasn't strong enough to break bones, but it hurt, and at that speed, left bruises.

"Run for home," Shirou yelled to Yuuna. He stood guard as the attacker rolled to his feet and lumbered away. Shirou watched until Yuuna opened the door to her house before giving chase.

Shirou reinforced his legs and ran after the thug. The mugger lumbered down the street and leaped over the fence at the end. When Shirou reached the fence, he saw that the other side had a disused train track. Shirou leaped nimbly over and dropped down, so that when the mugger paused to look around, Shirou was crouching in the weeds growing inside the fence, invisible in the dark.

After ascertaining that he had evaded the pursuit, the ogreish mugger continued on at an amble, heading for an abandoned train sitting on a spur track.

As Shirou edged closer, he caught a whiff of something rancid, ' _I should get Rin'_. It smelled of magic.

^Trackless^

"There is definitely a well of power there," Rin was looking at the train from atop an old warehouse that abutted the tracks. It sometimes amazed her that in a crowded city like Fuyuki, there could still be places like this. But having a naturally occurring upwelling of mana would explain why people might avoid this area. "Its probably made a hash out of whoever has been living in that train, turning them in some sort of Oni-like chimeras. From your description, they aren't human anymore." Rin momentarily considered reporting this to someone, so that somebody official from the Clocktower could come deal with this situation. But they wouldn't. And it was her responsibility. That was what being the 'second owner' meant. She glanced over at the wannabe hero. At least she had Shirou as backup. This would be so much more overwhelming if she had to deal with it on her own.

"You ready?" At Shirou's nod, she continued, "We have to get all of the chimeras outside, so I can seal the well. We'll try not to kill any of them but they may not give us any choice." She was partly warning Shirou, and partly strengthening her own resolve.

Shirou hoisted his bow, "Go."

Rin nodded, jumping down to the ground on the other side of the fence and blasting the train with a barrage of Gandr, causing it to rattle and shake. Immediately, a half dozen huge oni-like humanoids barreled out of the train. Shirou shot two of them through the calf muscles of their legs as they stood and snuffed at the air, trying to find whoever had dared trespass on their territory. The others turned and charged Rin, like animals protecting their den. She sprayed them with Gandr but they were much more resistant than she had expected – it took a steady barrage to take down just one of them. Shirou managed to shoot two more during that time, but the last one reached melee range, grabbing at her with his paw like hands. Rin kicked him in the side of his leg, staggering him so she could punch him in the neck. But his neck was as thick as a tree: her hand just bounced off with little effect. And one of the oni that Shirou had shot through the arm had pulled the arrow out and was advancing. Rin was beginning to panic when Shirou landed behind her opponent, smashing him with a shinai hard enough to knock him to the ground.

"Go! Deal with the well!" A katana appeared in his hands as he moved to face off against the oni that had yanked out the arrow.

Rin nodded and ran for the train. The thugs that had were closest to it were more human like, and the arrows in their legs had incapacitated them. She reached the spot where the magic was a palpable sensation, making goosebumps on her skin, and threw the gem that she had prepared with the sealing spell onto it.

Rin's heart race - _'this had better work!'_ placing spells into gems was a new skill to her, and it had taken her a week to prepare this one. And the gem itself was expensive.

There was a flash of white, and Rin could almost discern letters dancing in the light before it faded. The oni all convulsed as the well stopped radiating magic.

Shirou gave her a thumbs up as he joined her. The two mages jumped the fence and ran before the cops could show up. Once they were safe, Rin turned to her companion. "We need to talk about your projection magic."

Rin had been letting her magic research slip as she tutored Shirou, and she had been feeling vaguely guilty about that. But the level of projection that Shirou was doing was unprecedented. If she could get a handle on how he was managing it, then that would more than make up for any slacking earlier. And she could still spend time with Shirou.


	4. Chapter 4

[[A year later]]

Shirou ran up to the Tohsaka mansion. The moment he touched the doorbell, the front door flew open.

"Your late." Rin stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips.

"Sorry, Sorry," Shirou gasped, "Taiga kept insisting on rematches until I finally let her win."

Rin's frown dissolved into a smirk. "You shouldn't let her push you around like that. That's my job. Come on, I made cookies." Not that her cooking was up to Shirou's standards, but Rin refused to give up. Once she discovered that Shirou didn't have much practice at baking western style desserts, she concentrated her own efforts on that one area. Now, whenever she hosted their study session, she tried to have something baked.

"So, English or Projection?" Shirou asked. He was somewhat surprised at how easily Projection came to him (at least when it came to weapons), but he credited Tohsaka's excellent tutoring. As he picked up a cookie, he added, "You know, I never mentioned how much I appreciate you helping me with my magecraft. Without that, I would still be completely clueless."

"I still don't think your constant focus on combat applications is healthy. There are other ways of helping people other than hitting bad guys over the head. You could go into medicine or law or something." Helping people as a way of life hadn't really occurred to Rin until after she had started working with Shirou. As a magical genius, her focus had always been on being the best magus possible, and that meant pure research. Now, though, she was considering the unthinkable – applications for her work. Rin intentionally ignored Shirou's statement of gratitude, as she had absolutely no idea what the correct response was.

"Rin, even with your tutoring, I'm nobody special when it comes to academics. There's no way I would be able to accomplish much as a doctor or a lawyer." Shirou, on the other hand, had picked up some of Rin's exceptionalism, to the point that if he wasn't the best at something, he didn't think he could amount to anything.

"Plenty of doctors are just regular people," Rin protested weakly. The problem was she, didn't really believe being 'normal' was acceptable, but Shirou was right – he really wasn't that smart. He was struggling to get an 'A-' average, and he wasn't even in the honors classes.

"Anyway, lets get started on the Projection." They had been working on Shirou's talent off and on, whenever Rin could come up with a new lesson (aka experiment). For instance, when she had realized that most of his skill was in weapons, she had dragged him to the museum (to inspect other medieval weapons and see which of them worked with his skill) and then out for ice cream (She claimed it was so that Shirou could thank her for her hard work).

^Trackless^

"I finished the project." Rin announced as she walked into Kotomine church. While she appreciated the training in both martial arts and magecraft that Kirei provided, he was both creepy and annoying, and she wanted to avoid spending too much time with him. The one time she had brought Shirou with her to train with Kirei (well, to watch her excel and be impressed, if she was going to be honest with herself), Shirou had been gotten so annoyed with Kotomine that he had refused to go back. He claimed it was to prevent himself from accidentally punching the fake priest.

"You said that you would show me how to re-purpose a spell gem when I was done." Rin had been working on pre-casting her spells into gems, instead of just using them as mana reservoirs, but Kirei had mentioned that it was possible to change the effects of the spell in the gem, even after she was done infusing it.

"Hmm. Are you still wasting your time with Emya?" Kirei got up leisurely from a pew, where he had been seated, contemplating the infinite. Or something.

Rin frowned. She didn't like how Kirei was so critical of her training Shirou. His projection ability was fascinating, and it only seemed fair to offer him tutoring in exchange for letting her use him as a lab rat. "Yes. And before you start in on me again, I have my reasons."

"Ah, yes. You have an itch to scratch," Kirei smirked.

"Why, you.." She threw herself at the smug snake, spinning into a roundhouse kick at the last moment. Kirei easily blocked her, stepping in and jamming an elbow down onto her leg.

"If you want to spar, we really should do that at your place. The Tohsaka mansion has more room." Kirei smirked.

"I am not sleeping with Emya. I am not even interested in sleeping with him!" Rin barked. Of course, she hadn't told Kirei the real reason she was spending so much time with Shirou: Projection was her secret research project, and she wasn't about to share it with this creep. Nor was she going to talk about her feeling on Sakura's death (She hadn't even told Shirou, though she had felt like a heel about that after getting him to reveal the Sakura that he knew). And she wasn't even going to consider that she might have feelings for the redheaded idiot.

"Lets get started on the magecraft. I can beat you up later." Rin's bravado was somewhat forced, as Kirei was still the better martial artist by far.

"You know that Emya's father was a Master in the previous grail war. For all you know, he was the one who killed Tokiomi Tohsaka." Kirei remarked casually as he watched to see if Rin wold rise to the bait.

Rin ground to a halt. She had long ago learned to ignore the bastard's little comments. "Who was his servant?"

"He had servant Saber, though given her fondness of motorcycles, she cold have passed as rider." Kirei opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a dog eared book. "I never learned who she really was." He flipped through to a book mark. "Here. Read this section, and then I'll show you how to use that with your gems."

^Trackless^

Shirou locked the Dojo door. He had finally surrendered and joined the Kendo club, if only for the exercise. They met a block away from the school, as the High school and Middle school shared the space - Fuyuki city was not known for its Kendo team (Taiga having been an anomaly, one that the coach still bragged about), so the club membership was low. But the instructor was decent, and Shirou appreciated the workout, even if the only one who gave him much of a challenge was the Sensei. (Unknown to Shirou, Sensei was starting to brag about him as well.)

"Hey Emya."

Shirou turned as a strangely familiar voice called out. He was embarrassed at being surprised – he was trying to work on his situational awareness, but he had started thinking about what to make for dinner for Rin (Fuji-nee had a meeting, and wouldn't make it in time).

A cadaverous teen shuffled over. He was pale and worn, almost drained of life, and the left side of his face was sagging slightly. It was Shinji.

"Hello." Shirou replied cautiously. It was broad daylight, and there were lots of people about, so Shirou didn't think his former friend would pull anything, but he looked like like he was drugged up or something, so Shirou prepared to project a shinai, just in case.

Sniff, sniff. "You stink"

Shinji shrugged, "Do you know what happens to a 14 year old pretty-boy in Juvie? They don't even wait for you to drop the soap. After the first five times, I stopped showering." Another languid shrug, "But it didn't really help – at first, it cut down the assaults to maybe one a week, but then my cell mate sold me to Big Bubba for a pack of smokes."

Shirou nodded, but continued watching Shinji. The Matou looked broken, like a reflection in a cracked mirror.

"I'll be seeing you around, Emya. My term is up and now I get to go back to school. So you better watch yourself."

Shirou watched Shinji walk off. His gait was broken also. ' _I should warn Rin._ _If she hates him as much as she claims, she's going to get into_ _a_ _fight with him.'_ Not that Shirou didn't trust Rin to hold her own in a fight - he did (she was way better at open hand fighting than he was) - but with Shinji like that… There is no telling what he'd do.

^Trackless^

[[later that day]]

It was in math class that it happened. A searing pain shot through Rin's arm. It was only her focus as a magus that prevented her from reacting. Slowly, a reddish bruise in the shape of concentric circles formed on the back of her hand. ' _And so it begins.'_ It was a command seal. She had known that the next Holy grail war was coming – she could detect the build up of energies under Ryuudo temple. And she knew that she would be one of the Masters – she was the Tohsaka heir, after all, and they had created the ritual. But she had been slacking.

She hadn't been preparing intensively like she should have. Why not? Was she burnt out? Rin frowned. She needed to get her act together. She glanced up at the front of the classroom. She wasn't missing anything - the teacher was just explaining last night's homework. She could safely tune him out.

Rin considered her magecraft. She was still looking forwards to the project that Kirei had assigned her. Though mostly to prove (yet again) that she was a better magus than him. But what she was really looking forwards to was getting together with Shirou to work on Projection.

So there. She wasn't burnt out. She still loved magic.

But today was Wednesday - today she was supposed to work with Shirou on English at her place. After some consideration, she realized that she was looking forwards to that just as much. As a matter of fact, she was didn't really care what they worked on. Rin scowled. This was turning into a serious distraction She needed to concentrate on her magecraft, especially at this time.

And the answer was obvious.

^Trackless^

As school was letting out for the day, Rin walked over to Shirou at the lockers, where he was switching into his outdoor shoes. This was the first time in the two years that she had been tutoring him (lets be honest – in the two years that they had been friends - there was no point in lying to herself anymore) that she had acknowledged him in school.

"Hello Emya."

The surprised redhead turned around. "Yes?" Several of the others stopped to watch, as they always did when the school idol was involved.

"I need to concentrate on my studies, so I will not be tutoring you anymore. Please do not come over. Do not speak to me or otherwise contact me. I apologize for the inconvenience." She bowed slightly and turned away. _'There. Maybe that little drama will help him in the social hierarchy.'_ She walked off quickly. That combined with the the milling teens that all were trying to ask Shirou questions blocked him from following her.

Rin kept walking, going faster and faster. She was almost running when she got to her home. As she did, she stopped. _'It wo_ _u_ _ld be just like that Baka to ignore what I said and come to my house anyway._ _'_ She turned around and headed down a side street, walking until she was in the middle of nowhere, overlooking the bay.

Rin stopped and leaned on the railing morosely. She had done what she had needed to do. Now she would be able to compete in the Grail War without distractions.

A sob ripped out of her.

She doubled over, hanging on to the railing for dear life, as sobs wracked her. This was an industrial part of town, so the few people about were working class men, and they didn't want to intrude on a woman's grief.

By the time she came to herself, it was dark.


	5. Chapter 5

The following day was a very strange one for Shirou. As he walked to school, he felt… different. He wasn't certain how to explain it. Rin cutting him off like that was just so weird. He had thought that they were friends. He sighed and shook his head. And then there was the other students badgering him about it. Rin's request that they not acknowledge each other in school finally made sense. And last night, as he walked home (he had first gone to Tohsaka's to see if he could figure out what was going on, but nobody had been home), that creepy blond girl had told him to 'summon his or die' and called him older brother.

For the first time in his life Shirou just wanted the school day to be over so he could have some time to himself.

He was almost to the school when Ayako Mitsuzuri peeled herself off of the tree she was leaning against. "Shirou, hold up. We need to talk." As Shirou stopped in front of her, she continued, "what happened with Rin? The whole school is buzzing that she broke up with you. I didn't even know that you were dating!" Ayako was one of Rin's (few) friends. Or so she thought. But to find out that she was so out of the loop with her supposed friend that Rin had a boyfriend, and never told her… And that it was Shirou, whom Ayako herself had had a crush on, back when he had been in the archery club with her...

"We weren't dating!" Shirou replied in exasperation. Trust the rumor mill to blow everything out of proportion. "She was just tutoring me." Shirou paused, "I don't think I'm ready to date again just yet." He turned and started walking for the school, with Ayako falling in to walk by his side companionably.

"Again?" Ayako asked. This was not something she had heard about. As far as she had known, Shirou was completely oblivious to girls. (Though she was coming to realize how little she knew Shirou).

"Yeah, at the end of first year, I started dating Sakura Matou. But she died. Her asshole brother pushed her in front of of a car."

"That's horrible." Ayako gasped. She was at a loss. All the popular 'girly' girls would know how to react in a situation like this, but she was an athlete, and had never paid much attention to all the social fru-fru.

It was because she was distracted that she didn't notice Shirou freeze up momentarily as they walked into the school. "Um, I promised to help Issei with some school council business, so I have to run." He gave a quick wave and power walked to the closest stairs.

As soon as Ayako was out of sight, he started sniffing. He had 'smelled' a Working - a spell on the school. And it came across as a sickly sweet stench, like rotting meet. The aroma made his stomach churn. Shiriou was betting it wasn't anything good.

Fortunately, it was still early, and except for the archery club, few students were about to see Shirou acting so strangely. He followed his nose, and it didn't take long to find the first sigil.

Shirou stared at it, copying down parts of it on a scrap piece of paper as he tried to puzzle out what it did. _'I wish Rin was here. She would know.'_ All he knew was that whatever it was, it was designed to cause harm.

 _'_ _Maybe I should hang out by Rin's homeroom...no.'_ Shirou quickly abandoned that idea – that would put the rumor mill into full swing. They would assume that he was a jilted boyfriend. Or a psycho stalker.

Shirou settled instead for pacing the halls of the school, trying to intercept Tohsaka as she walked into the school. But by the time the bell rang, there was still no sign of Rin.

^Trackless^

[[earlier that day]]

Rin waited for Shirou to leave for school before approaching the Emiya estate. She knew he always left early, so that he could work out at the school gym before class (a habit he had started when he was in the archery club), but she waited until the start of school before approaching, just in case.

A quick incantation popped open the door. _'_ _G_ _ood thing that Shirou's alarm field only works if he's inside the property.'_ She closed the door behind her and crossed through the house and out the back, into the courtyard. Her destination was the shed. She shrugged her courier bag to a more comfortable position as she made her way in.

There was the motorcycle, under the tarp. The one the Saber from the previous war had ridden, and which nobody since had touched. It was a half-assed catalyst, but it was better than none. Obviously, if she hadn't been so distracted with Shirou, she would have gotten something much better. But there was no time for crying over spilled milk. She would make the best of her current options.

Rin pushed aside a stack of tools that Shirou had abandoned here and put down her bag. From inside, she withdrew a suction cup attached to a long string.

She pushed the suction cup down in the middle of the empty spot with an incantation and gave it a tug. It wasn't going to come off until she was done.

To the other end of the sting, she tied a stick of chalk.

She slowly began the laborious job of drawing the inner circle. The outer circle would be much easier. And then she would have to write out the incantation between the two.

That project took her the entire morning. It was early afternoon by the time all her other preparations were done as well: the circles scribed, the candles placed and lit. Incense smoldering, Rin stood up, feeling light headed. She had forgotten to bring lunch, but that was ok, she hadn't had time to eat anyway.

For one guilty moment she considered raiding Shirou's fridge. She knew that there were some leftovers from Sunday – Shirou had made a birthday feast for her. Her breath hitched slightly, but she stood up resolutely.

"Ye first, O silver, O iron.  
O stone of the foundation, O Archduke of the Contract.  
Hear me in the name of our great teacher, the Arch-magus Schweinorg.  
Let the descending winds be as a wall.  
Let the gates in all directions be shut, rising above the crown, and let the three-forked roads to the Kingdom revolve.  
Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut. Shut.  
Five perfections for each repetition.  
And now, let the filled sigils be annihilated in my stead!  
Set.  
Let thy body rest under my dominion, let my fate rest in thy blade.  
If thou submitteth to the call of the Holy Grail, and if thou wilt obey this mind, this reason, then thou shalt respond.  
I make my oath here.  
I am that person who is become the virtue of all Heaven.  
I am that person who is covered with the evil of all Hades.  
Thou seven heavens, clad in a trinity of words,  
come past thy restraining rings, and be thou the hands that protect the balance-! "

She held the 10 year gem up in her hand and tapped it, slowly releasing the vast reservoir of mana into the ritual. She wasn't working in her place of power, and she wasn't casting at her most potent time, so Rin figured she would need all the help she could get for this spell to work right.

The circle began to glow red, and the floor in the middle rippled.

Slowly, a warrior clad in shining armor rose from the floor.

Rin tried to watch, but the glow was too much – she had to shield her eyes with her hand. By the time that her vision had cleared, a stunningly beautiful blond woman in armor stood in front of her.

"I am servant Saber. I ask you, are you my master?" She gestured at Rin, leaving her hand extended ambiguously. She wasn't certain if it was to defend herself or to shake hands.

Rin looked at the hand, flummoxed. She wasn't certain why she was so over-awed. "Um, yeah." Rin smiled, taking the other woman's hand. "Yeah, I mean I am your master. " Rin stood holding Saber's hand before realizing what she was doing and dropping it quickly. "Um, we should go. I will show you around Fuyuki."

^Trackless^

It was the end of the school day, and still no Rin. Shirou frowned. _'Maybe she did have something that she r_ _e_ _ally needed to do. Maybe I am reading too much into her declaration, just like all the school gossips._ _'_ Shirou smiled wryly.

' _Well, somebody has to deal with these sigil_ s.' He headed towards the first one he had found. Rin had showed him how to drain runes of their power. It was a long, tedious process, but not difficult. There might have been a faster way of doing it, but if there was, Rin had deemed that he wasn't skilled enough to use it.

It was full dark by the time that he had drained two of the marks. Shirou stood up and stretched his back. He figured he should drain at least one more. That would keep the spell from activating, and he could talk to Rin about it in school tomorrow. With a sniff, he headed back downstairs.

^Trackless^

"This is the high school. I'm going to have to keep attending, so as to keep up appearances," Rin explained as she walked with Saber. "I know it seems like a risk, especially since you can't take incorporeal form, but I am known as the Tohsaka heir: if I change my behavior, everybody will know that I am a master. I may be able to get an advantage if I can delay that happening." Rin led Saber onto the school grounds and froze. "There's a draining field set up here!"

Saber took a martial posture, "Is that a threat?"

"Not yet, but I need to investigate this – it has got to be related to the Grail war." Rin led the way across the athletic field towards the main school entrance when she stopped again. "Damn, I really am distracted. I never asked who you are." Rin blushed, feeling like an idiot, ' _it must be because I didn_ _'_ _t sleep last night'._ These past 24 hours, her whole world was out of kilter.

"Master, I don't think this is the time," Saber replied.

"Oh, why not? I am dying to know as well," came a voice from atop the bleachers. A man dressed in a skin tight blue outfit, holding a spear, faded into view.

"Master, he's a Servant. Lancer if I had to guess." Saber stepped in front of Rin.

"My, my. Beauty and brains. I see you got it all." Lancer quipped, before leaping down, his spear thrusting out at Saber.

Rin ran back towards the supply shed to get some distance. When she turned around, Saber and Lancer were fighting all out, moving too fast for her to see. She pulled out a jewel that was charged with a fire spell, but there was no way that she could hit Lancer without interfering with Saber's attack.

Rin scowled. There was no reason that a Saber, the most powerful Servant, should be having such a hard time with Lancer. Especially with Rin Tohsaka as her master. ' _I wish my bond with Saber was better.'_ But that's what she got for using a second hand catalyst.

Rin tried to make out what was happening, but all that she could tell was that it was a stalemate, ' _if this keeps up, Saber is going to get injured.'_ It was a silly thought – she was a Servant, and it was her job to fight for Rin, but the idea of Saber getting hurt was making her uncomfortable. _'I can't afford for my servant to get injured this early on in the war.'_ Rin concentrated and sent to Saber over their telepathic link, 'Sa _ber withdraw_ _'._

Saber's attention momentary wavered. At that same moment Lancer called out "Gae Bolg!" and stabbed at Saber.

The blond swords-woman pivoted at the last moment, barely avoiding getting stabbed through the heart as the cursed spear plunged into her shoulder. She staggered, going down onto one knee, but she held her guard. Rin barely resisted the urge to run over to her.

 _'This is bad.'_ Rin couldn't believe how fast everything was going wrong. Just moments ago, she was getting ready for the Grail war, and now it looked like her servant was about to die and she was going to be eliminated.

Lancer jumped back and paused, "Sorry I have to finish it quick like this, but my despicable master is calling me home."

But before he could make use of his extreme speed to surge back in and finish off Saber, an arrow flashed out from the top of the archery dojo. Lancer moved aside at the last moment, so that instead of plunging through his calf, it only drew a line of blood across his leg.

"Is that Archer?" Rin asked as she tried to retrace where the arrow came from.

"I don't sense another Servant," Saber replied as Lancer dashed towards the Archery dojo.

Somebody jumped off of the roof as he did. A red headed somebody.

Rin put two and two together. ' _Shirou!'_ She gasped. "Saber!" She held up her command seals, "Protect that man at all costs!" One of the seals faded from view as Saber teleported in front of Shirou, blocking Lancer's attack at the last moment.

"You again!" Lancer hissed as he pulled back for another jab, only to find his spear fouled with a pair of cleavers. As he jumped back to get some some space before Saber could use the opening to take his head off, he glanced to see the new nuisance. It was the boy archer, now wielding a pair of meat cleavers, of all things.

"My master wants me to withdraw, so I will let you live today." Lancer turned to the redhead who had taken a supporting position off to Sabers side, "and you are surprisingly resourceful, for a mortal." He smiled brightly, "At least now I have something to look forwards to. Ciao!" he leaped away.

Saber turned to face Shirou, "you did not have to assist me."

Shirou bowed slightly, "I can believe that. But I couldn't stand by and watch him attack the two of you. Not without attempting to help. I am sorry if my aid was not welcome."

Saber stood, flummoxed. She had not expected chivalry to still be alive in this day, especially not in Japan, the home of that Kiritsugu Emiya.

This tablue was interrupted as Rin ran up, "What do you think you were doing, you idiot!"

"I wasn't about to let people fight and kill each other. So I shot that guy in the leg, to disable him." Shirou took a deep breath to center himself. "Can somebody explain to me what is going on? And who was that guy – he was so fast I couldn't keep up with him."

"And you shouldn't try! That was Servant Lancer, and this is Servant Saber. They are heroes of antiquity brought to life to compete in the Holy Grail war. No living person can keep up with them."

Shirou nodded. "And I have no clue what you just said. How about we go to my place and discuss this over dinner?"

The idea of dinner with Shirou was sorely tempting, but Rin shook her head no, "I need to disable the draining field that somebody set up at the school."

"Oh, that's what that is. I just spent the past three hours disassembling it. I didn't have time to take it down completely, but I don't think it will be able to activate for a couple of days. Let's go talk."

Rin was conflicted. On the one hand, she wanted to make a clean break from Shirou (and she wanted to check his work on the draining field), but on the other, it was Shirou, and dinner, and she would never admit it, but she already missed him.

"Master, allies are important." If there was one thing Saber had learned from all her struggles and all her failures, it was that.

"Fine." Rin acquiesced, pretending to humor Saber.


	6. Chapter 6

Ok, first off, let me clear up some misconceptions: When I wrote 'Bad end' in the synopsis, I didn't mean that I would kill off all the characters.

The point of Fate Stay Night is that in each route, Shirou has something he believes in, something that he accomplishes. In a 'bad end', that does not happen.

* * *

"So get me get this straight," Shirou asked, leaning in over the table. They were at his house. The food had been served, and Rin had explained the basics of Holy Grail war. "Seven magi will try their best to kill each other, and anybody else who gets in the way, to get the power to make a wish, and to create a breakthrough in their research."

"Pretty much. Except the Servant will be doing most of the killing. The wish is for their benefit, to incentivise their participation." Rin nodded, taking a bite of her fish as she waited for Shirou to explode.

"That is insane."

Rin shrugged. She knew Shirou well enough to know which part of this was bothering him. "That is the life of a magus, to risk your life and the lives of others to increase your understanding of magecraft. You know this."

"But I don't accept it." Shirou retorted.

Saber watched in fascination. He reminded her of somebody. She wasn't certain who, though. Maybe Lancelot (back at the beginning, before the trouble with Gwenniver)? Back when his passion and purity of spirit was unmatched. When she had had that secret crush on him. Except Lancelot never cooked. Not like this. She took the last of the rice dish with only a modicum of guilt - an army traveled on its stomach, after all.

"This has nothing to do with you," Rin retorted, "You're not involved, and the best thing for you to do is to stay out of the way. You're less likely to get hurt that way."

Shirou gave her a stern look. Rin blushed, realizing what she had said wrong, but she wasn't certain how to correct it.

"I want to join. I know I may not be able to do much – I am not a Master, I don't have a Servant, but I want to help keep you and the rest of Fuyuki safe."

 _'I knew that was coming.'_ Rin shook her head, "That is unacceptable!" She surged to her feet to take one of her patented lecture positions: One foot on the (low) table, one hand on her hip, and leaning forward slightly so that she could waggle a finger under Shirou's nose.

Saber interrupted. "Master, may I speak with you?"

Rin glanced down at the other women, and blushed in embarrassment, taking a more demure, appropriate, pose. "Ok." She followed Saber outside into the courtyard, between the house and the shed.

"I would like to have Shirou's help. While he can not match my fighting skills, he was still very impressive against Lancer. Even I can not be in two places at once, and there may come a time when we need a second warrior. And I trust him." Saber did not add 'more than you'. It had become obvious to Saber that Rin had used Shirou's home and catalyst to summon her without his permission. Obviously, she would do anything to win, just like Kiritsugu.

Saber was barely holding herself together. After the struggle to maintain Camelot, culminating in the defeat at Camlann, and the struggle to work with Kiritsugu, to finally be betrayed by him, and now to have to deal with the same cynical manipulation... _'I am not certain I can handle it on my own.'_

The only island of chivalry and nobility, of stability, in all of this was Shirou.

Rin threw up her hands, "Fine! Fine, we'll all work together. It's not like I can stop that idiot from doing whatever he wants anyway!"

After dinner was done and the dishes put away, Rin put her shoes back on, "Saber and I are going to go scout around, see if we can get a feel for these 'gas leak' attacks." She was certain that the 'gas leaks' were actually a Servant mana-draining its victims. But what made no sense to her was how geographically dispersed the attacks were. Therefore the scouting.

"Ok, I'm ready to go," Shirou locked the front door and joined the pair of women.

Rin gave him a thumbs up and a smile before putting an arm around Saber. In one motion Saber scooped her up and leaped to the top of a building three blocks over.

Shirou rarely swore, but this was one of those times. Rin was never willing to accept help. She saw everything as a competition, and accepting help as a sign of weakness and defeat.

He went back inside and grabbed his bike. He could do some scouting on his own.

^Trackless^

Saber landed on a high rise in the center of Fuyuki and set Rin down. It wasn't the tallest building, but not being an Archer, her vision wasn't that enhanced. This perch gave her a good vantage of several neighborhoods. "Why did you insist on leaving Shirou behind like that after agreeing to work with him? It was dishonorable."

Rin adjusted her clothes. "What do I care about honor? If that idiot comes along, he will just get in the way." Rin waved dismissively. "He has a greatly exaggerated sense of his abilities." Or more like a distorted sense of priorities, putting everyone else before his well being. He would end up getting himself hurt (killed?), but she wasn't going to discuss (or even think about) something private like that. Not with a stranger. Even one who had just carried her in a rather close, intimate fashion. Rin began to blush, but fortunately, it was too dark for Saber to notice.

"Anyway, you take that side, and I'll scry over here, ok?" Rin added quickly, trying to focus her scattered thoughts on the Grail War. She hoped that Saber had some way of spotting enemy servants – She still hadn't told Rin her identity, so the magus wasn't exactly certain what her abilities were, beyond the rather impressive combat skills. Rin sent out a small owl familiar to act as her eyes.

They continued like that for some time. Rin had just managed to get her mind on the task at hand when Saber pointed, "Something is going on over there."

Rin tried to see where she was pointing, but it was too dark. She sent a scrying spell that way, though, and it came back positive. "There's a Servant down there. Let's go!"

^Trackless^

Shirou jumped off his bike and ran into the alley as soon as he heard the strangled cry.

It was a long alley between two brownstones. On the far side of the dumpster, a women in soiled fetish gear was assaulting a teenage girl.

"Stop!" Shirou projected a katana he had seen at the museum. "Let go of her. Now!"

The fetish woman did so - just before leaping at Shirou, her fingers extended like claws. As Shirou batted her away with the katana, he saw that her eyes were covered with a rag.

She was fast, but not to the same insane level as Lancer. And her weapons were the talons on her hands, making it easier for Shirou to defend against them.

At least at first.

As she kept attacking, her motions became wilder and less predicable, and Shirou had to reinforce himself to move ever faster. He was pushing so much prana into his legs that they felt like they were on fire.

He was barely holding his own when Saber landed by his side, sweeping into an attack without pause.

The wild Servant jumped backwards. Then, with a snarl, she leaped away.

Rin clambered down from the roof by way of the fire escape, her school idol persona completely discarded, "you can't do that, Shirou! The whole point of me leaving you behind was to keep you out of danger. If you go looking for trouble on your own, that undermines the whole plan!"

But Shirou wasn't paying any attention – he had run over to the incapacitated teen "It's Ayako! She's breathing. I think she'll be ok if we can get her to a hospital."

Rin immediately switched gears. Despite her fondness of monologuing like a Bond villain, she was a consummate professional. She gave Shirou a quick nod and pulled out her cell phone to dial emergency services.

By the time they were all done getting Ayako to the hospital, it was too late for any more scouting. "Baka, I want you to head straight home. Don't go looking for trouble, because you WILL find it." Rin lectured sternly.

Shirou shrugged and smiled at the compliment (not that Rin had intended it as such), "Only if you do the same." When Rin waved her hand dismissively, Shirou stopped smiling. "I'm serious. You need to take care of yourself also."

"Fine, fine. Tomorrow we work together. And I won't try to ditch you. Acceptable?"

Saber hid a smirk, _'I wish I had_ _had_ _knights that were more like that.'_

^Trackless^

 _She was walking through a somber crowd of black clad people. As she pushed her way through, they all turned to give her disapproving looks. The more she tried to move forwards, the more resistance there was, like pushing through thick mud. She was just about to stop when HE turned around. The red headed teen gave her a smile and let her in - the crowd opened up into a bubble around him. As she stepped in, she felt welcomed and at peace._

Saber woke up, 't _hat was a_ _nother_ _strange dream.'_ She looked around the room – she was sleeping on a cot in Tohsaka's bedroom. She would have been fine sharing the bed – it was huge by her standards – but Rin had stammered and objected. She had also refused to let Saber sleep on the floor, instead insisting that she use the cot. ' _Maybe it is the homey environment?'_ Sabers dreams were usually of war and bloodshed. But this was the third time she had woken up tonight from a very different, almost alien, sort of dream. And they had all featured Shirou. _'_ _Huh. I d_ _id not_ _think that I th_ _ought_ _of him that way...'_ Saber wasn't oblivious to the ways of men and women. She had just never thought that they would ever be relevant to her life. This was... confusing.

Saber spared a glance for her master, who was still firmly asleep, a small smile on her face, before quietly slipping out of the room to inspect the defensiveness of the premises (and to consider what this new revelation meant).

^Trackless^

"Are you ready?" Rin asked. She had met up with Shirou on the roof of the school after class let out. The two of them had agreed to work together to take down the draining field. Shirou was much faster at finding the sigils that were propping it up, and Rin could take them apart the way Shirou could fillet a chicken – 5 minutes and it would be reduced to its constituent parts.

And afterwords she could find some way to send Shirou away to safety.

Shirou gave a solemn nod, "I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to help out." While he honestly felt that way, his helping wasn't that unusual.

Which was why he was so surprised that the usually poised Rin blushed to match her favorite sweater.

"Well, in that case lets get started and stop wasting time. Which way?"

Shirou led the way to a spot behind the HVAC system. After that, they disarmed three more on the roof before heading down into the building.

They were making good progress, and Rin was considering her next step (ie ditching Shirou) when they were interrupted by a scream.

"That came from outside!" The two teens were working on the second floor, in the teachers lounge. They ran out the door without any need for coordination. Shirou was faster with his longer legs, so he reached the covered walk way first. A second year student lay there, passed out. As Shirou began to scan the surrounding for whoever had attacked her, Rin knelt down next to the girl. "Her mana levels have been drained to dangerously low levels. It looks the same as that incident in the alley."

As Shirou glanced down at the two girls, there was a motion at the edge of his vision. He jacked his arm out, managing to knock a sharpened spike to the ground before it could spear into Rin's back. While Rin turned at the sound of the spike clanging onto the cement walkway, Shirou was already running towards where the attack had originated.

"Shirou!" Run watched the idiot race off. She belatedly processed what had happened. "Arh! He's going to drive me insane!" But she needed to stabilize the girl before she could do anything else.

She could use a command seal to summon Saber... Rin considered as she used a gem to infuse a little prana back into the student. No. Using another command seal just to save the idiot from the repercussions of his bad choices would be a waste. She had a Grail war to win, after all.

^Trackless^

Shirou ran into the woods behind the school, pouring prana into his arms and legs. A blur flashed at him from the treetops – it was the wild servant, her claws out. Rin had said that she was most likely Berserker class. Shirou summoned his katana and deflected her attack, unconsciously emulating Saber's stance from her fight with Lancer as he did.

The servant attacked with lightning speed. As soon as she was blocked from one direction, she leaped away and came in from a different angle. At first Shirou was holding his own against her, but as they fought her attacks became wilder and faster, and some began to slip through Shirou's defense. Slowly, he was pushed back, until he was standing against a large oak, barely able to defend himself. The claws came from everywhere – it was like he was fighting three women, not just one.

Shirou was bleeding from his legs and arms, and he had three deep scratches across his chest, where a claw had slipped through his defense. He raised his arm to block another pair of attacks as he gasped for air.

All of a sudden, the air was filled black Gandr shot. The Servant managed to contort her body so that they all missed, and in the next instant she leaped up and pushed off of the tree, zooming back towards where the spell had come from.

Shirou immediately poured mana into his legs and staggered after her. Fighting was one of the most exhausting things you can do, and Shirou had been pushing himself to his limit as he had fought the Servant. He arrived just as Berserker pounced at Rin. Tohsaka whirled out of the way. Her martial arts skills were impressive, but they were no match for a Servant. Shirou threw a projected copy of Berserker's spike at her, catching her off guard. As she paused monumentally, trying to process where the spike had came from, Shirou leaped at her, swinging, putting her on the defensive.

After several exchanges with the two teens, the Servant leaped up into the tree tops and away.

"I was just about to hit her with my gems." Rin lowered her hand, three three small darts shaped from ruby cradled in her palm. "We almost had her!" Which was when Shirou collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Oh,.." Rin knelt down next to Shirou, _'Saber, where are you?'_

 _'I just arrived. I can sense a Servant fleeing.'_

 _'Don't pursue - we need to get Shirou home: He's lost a lot of blood!'_

Saber dropped through the trees next to Rin, and immediately knelt down next to the boy. "Is he going to be ok?"

"I don't know, but I think so. Nothing looks broken, and I stopped the worst of the bleeding. If we can get him home, he should live. That idiot again put himself at risk.. hey!" Rin interrupted her harangue as Saber gently picked up Shirou, ignoring her.

"We need to go."

Rin nodded, _'She cares more for Shirou_ _'s well being more_ _than_ _than she does for me.'_ It was a very disturbing thought, on many levels.

Rin looked at her servant's back with mixed feelings. She could easily hate Saber, if she wasn't careful.


	7. Chapter 7

Shirou started awake.

"Baka, lie down. You need more rest."

"How long was I out for?" Shirou followed Rin's command. He was laying in his room at the Emiya estate, so whatever happened couldn't have been too bad, but he wasn't certain how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was Rin in danger. He turned his head. She looked the same as always now, though - being helpful in her own inimitable way.

"Not long enough. It's just past dinner time."

"Oh,.. Fujimora! She'll be here momentarily."

"She was already here. I told her that you were feeling ill, and that she would have to fend for herself and make her own food, for once in her adult life."

Shirou was nonplussed by the vehemence in Rin's voice.

"But I like cooking," he almost whined.

"Right now, you're in no shape. I want you to rest. I ordered out some pizza from the American place down the street." Rin paused, "Also, I'm going to move in here to keep an eye on you." The idiot kept messing up all her plans. She couldn't even break things off with him without risking that he would get himself killed.

Shirou nodded, and then stood up, "I'm fine. See? You don't need to move in here to keep watch."

And he did indeed look fine: despite the injuries he had sustained, he didn't appear the least bit unsteady.

"There is no way you can have healed that fast. You should have been out on your back for at least a week."

"Not in my day," Saber interrupted. Shirou hadn't noticed her kneeling on the mat, behind Rin. "Shirou does heal quickly, but it is not unheard of for great knights to do so." She smiled at Shirou.

Shirou could hear Rin's teeth grind together. "Ok, he may have healed unnaturally fast, ut I sbtill need to keep an eye on him to keep him from doing something stupid."

"Like participating a murderous contest for no good reason?" Shirou asked.

Rin looked ready to explode. She should yell at him him to just stay out of it, that all he was doing was endangering his own life and making her task harder. She glared at the idiot. He looked like an over-eager puppy. She couldn't bring herself to say it. "I will be sleeping in the room down the hall. Get used to it."

^Trackless^

"So, are you helping Shirou with breakfast now as well?" Fuji asked as she took a bite of her fish, "Maybe you should just move in here and be done with it." She smirked. The Taiga was now a playful kitten instead of a vengeful beast.

Shirou almost choked on his miso soup. "Ah, you certainly seem cheerful today."

"Yeah, I don't know why, but I've been feeling pretty good since last night." She glanced at her watch, "Oh, I gotta go!" She bounced to her feet and raced out, half dragging / half riding her moped. She hadn't even commented on Saber being at the table, though that may have been because Saber had sat quietly throughout the exchange, observing (which had given her more freedom to shovel food into her mouth).

Shirou turned towards Rin, "What did you do to her last night?"

"Nothing!" Rin had her best 'wide eyed innocent' look on display, but Shirou knew her well enough to know that it was a complete fake. He just waited. Finally Rin gave a long suffering sigh. "I just used a little hypnosis, to make her a little more.. tractable. And ignore Saber. I didn't think she would start trying to set us up."

"Rin, you have been coming over to my house for ages, and you haven't noticed that Fuji-nee is an incurable romantic? She reads those trashy novels of hers nonstop. Of course she's going to get the wrong idea. What?" Shirou wasn't certain why Rin was glaring at him. Or Saber was glaring at Rin.

^Trackless^

Rin walked into school feeling at peace for the first time since this whole Grail War started. She had had a restful night without dreaming about battles and dying, and she had eaten one of Shirou's breakfasts.

And now she was walking to school side by side with him, like they used to. She momentarily considered taking his hand, but the Baka would get the wrong idea: He was just an ally for the duration of the war. That's all. Once it was done, he was gone.

Instead, as soon as they entered the school, she pivoted to go her own way, without acknowledging him. Rin was just heading up the stairs to her homeroom when a figure shambled in front of her, blocking her path. "Hey, Rin. Can I call you Rin? We have so much in common that I feel close to you." It was Shinji, except he had changed. He walked like half his nerves were fried, and one eye had gone milky white. And if you looked close, you could almost see something moving under his skin.

Shinji noticed her looking, "This? Yeah, my asshole of a granddad decided to make some improvements, for the duration of the Heavens Feel. It hurt like hell, but at least now I am a magus, like you."

Rin unobtrusively palmed a gem with her left hand, in case Shinji tried anything.

"And I'm a Master. Just like you. Did you know that our families were allies for a long time? It only makes sense that we work together to win this Gail War. You can have the wish. I just want my body back."

Rin nodded, "So what do you propose?" She didn't quite understand what Shinji meant by 'getting his body back', but she would figure out what the idiot was talking about later. For now, she would milk him for any information that the little creep was willing to let slip.

"We should team up to take out the witch up in the temple. That place is a fucking fortress, magically speaking, and neither one of us can crack it alone."

Rin smiled, "I'll think about it." She started up the stairs until she was face to face with Shinji, "are you going to let me through?"

Shinji paused to consider before turning to make room for his intended ally. Rin nodded her thanks, but she kept a watchful eye on Shinji.

She was almost past him when he reached out and groped her ass.

^Trackless^

Shirou was just putting his outdoor shoes on to go home when Issei came up. It was the end of the school day, and it had been a very good day. The school felt cleaner with the sigils disarmed. There was still a faint miasma, but nowhere near as bad. And Fuji-nee was back to normal. She seemed a little hyper, but with Taiga, who could tell if that was naturally occurring or if it was caused by Rin's spell ?

"Shirou, I have to bring Shinji his homework." Issei held up a sheaf of papers. "I don't feel comfortable going out to his house myself, what with him being a criminal. Mind coming along?"

"Oh, is he sick?" Shinji had not looked well last time he saw him. Which was only fair – he shouldn't look well, not after what he had done to Sakura.

"No, he fell down the stairs. Apparently he's not very coordinated, because he fell ALL the way down without managing to catch himself."

"Huh. Ok, I'll walk with you."

They spent most of the walk talking about school and Ayako. Issei had taken to visiting her daily after she was attacked. "So, are the two of you an item?" Shirou asked.

"No, I am just bringing her the school work that she is missing, and then I stay and go over it with her. Its hard to follow class notes if you completely missed the class. And I am in most of her classes. " Issei adjusted the collar of his shirt, "It's very hot today. Oh, we're here."

They stopped in front of the Matou mansion. Somehow it gave the sense of decay despite not appearing to be in particularly bad shape. "Ah, let's just leave the papers in the mail slot and leave?"

"Fair enough," Issei took one of the manila envelopes from his book bag and jammed it through. "Um, I gotta go bring this next set to Ayako. She's home from the hospital, and she's hoping to come back to class next week." He added nonchalantly, not looking at Shirou.

Shirou waved him off and made his way back to the Emiya estate.

He was just considering stopping off at the market to get some groceries – having a pair of live-in guests was going to deplete his larder fast – when the strange white haired girl from a couple of days back jumped off of the swings in the park he was passing. "Hello Shirou-kun."

"Um, hi?" Shirou asked, puzzled at the familiarity with which the girl greeted him.

"Come, sit down. We have a lot to discuss. You didn't summon your servant." She led the way to a wooden bench off to one side of the play park. "And after some consideration, I have decided that I would rather you didn't die."

Shirou was getting progressively more creeped out. While she looked like a 10 year old girl, her mannerisms and vocabulary were those of somebody much older. She patted the bench beside her and smiled invitingly.

"Do I know you?" He asked, sitting down tentatively.

"No, we have never met, but I am your step sister. Older step sister. And as you have no doubt guessed, unless you are a complete dumkoff, I am also a Master in the Grail War. You also had the potential to be a Master – that bruise on your arm is a vestigial command seal – but all the servants have already been summoned, so you are out of luck."

"Ok..." Shirou nodded along. Actually, he hadn't guessed. And with the way his life was going, he hadn't even thought about the strange girl after that night. Rin had told him that he should take care to avoid other Masters in the Grail War, as they could be unpredictable, and if they were to discover that he was allied with her, he might be in danger. But this odd little girl (little woman?) seemed harmless enough.

"I have also gotten to know you fairly well over the past couple of days, and I know that despite not being involved in the Grail War, your life is still in danger because you are a heroic idiot who is set on throwing himself into harms way in a foolish yet noble attempt to help others. Thus, in order to keep you from dying, you will train with my Servant, Archer." Seeing that Shirou was still hesitating, she added, "It's ok. He doesn't want to kill you anymore."

"Ah, maybe tomorrow. I really need to get going," Shirou quickly stood up, only to stumble and collapse to the ground.

"Just to be clear, that wasn't a request. It was an order," Illyasviel stood up and dusted herself off before commanding, "Archer."

The white haired Archer faded into view. He was dressed in his typical red overcoat over black body armor. And he wore his typical long suffering look. But Illyasviel stood up on tiptoe to give him a quick peck on the cheek, and that melted the exasperation right off. "Bring him to my castle."

^Trackless^

"Where is that idiot?" Rin paced Shirou's dining room as Saber sat and watched. Dinner time had come and gone. The two had waited patiently for the provider of good, tasty food to appear, but nothing had happened.

That had been bothersome.

Now, it was almost eight o'clock, and there was still no Shirou, and Rin was starting to get a little worried. Her stomach was roiling. She had tried to grab a snack from Shirou's fridge, but she couldn't bring herself to eat it. She couldn't believe that idiot was doing this to her. He had forced himself into her life, refusing to let her push him away, and now he had disappeared! For all she knew, he was lying in a gutter somewhere, bleeding to death because he tried to save some little old lady from a Servant.

"Master, we should work on our strategy for the next couple of days. Nothing is gained by worrying." Saber was the voice of reason, "Once we discover where Shirou is, we can mount a rescue." Saber was mildly concerned about Shirou, but he had earned her respect – she assumed he could take care of himself, whatever the situation he found himself in.

"I know that!" Rin snapped. After pacing some more, she was just about to sit down when the front door opened. She leaped back to her feet.

"Hey, guys. You're never going to believe what happened." Shirou walked in, looking tired but happy.

"You better have been run over by a car and spent the past five hours in the hospital!" Rin snarled.

Shirou was taken a little aback at her vehemence.

"Don't worry, Shirou. Rin was just concerned for your safety," Saber interrupted as she walked over to Shirou and patted him on the shoulder. "It is good to have you back." She reached out to give his shoulder an extra squeeze.

"So what happened?" Rin asked, back to her normal, controlled self.

Shirou retold his encounter with Illyasviel, "And when I woke up I was in this giant ballroom, with her Servant. He spent the next couple of hours drilling me in sword fighting. He was kind of a jerk, but he really knew his stuff. And for some reason, he attacked me with an entire armory's worth of magic weapons. I don't know what he was trying to accomplish, but I was able to Structurally Grasp most of the weapons - it was incredibly useful." Not only that, but Archer was a genius – despite the very limited training time, everything he showed Shirou made perfect sense, so he only had to see it once or twice. He must have been a master teacher in life.

But he skipped mentioning that part, as Rin would get competitive (as always). And there was no reason for it – she was a perfectly good teacher herself.

Saber's blood ran cold, "Was this servant Archer class? With light colored hair?"

"Yes?"

Saber nodded. If she could be summoned into two consecutive Grail wars, it stood to reason that it could happen to other servants as well. "I know him. He an intolerable man, with an unrequited fascination for me." She scowled in distaste.

"Speaking of hentai perverts, I learned some useful information from Shinji today."

Shirou frowned in confusion, "Was this before he fell down the stairs?"

"Just before," Rin smirked. "First off, it turns out that the little monster is also a Master. If we hadn't been in school, I would have ended him. As it is, he should be out of action for some time. But the really interesting thing that he said was that there is a Servant based up in the Ryuudo temple. That's right where all the lei lines converge. If her master is a talented enough magus, they could use that to cast spells all over the city."

"The 'gas leaks'," Shirou pronounced. "We should go investigate that, after I call Fuji-nee. She's probably also worried, after I missed dinner."

"Actually," Rin looked slightly abashed, "She called to say that she wouldn't make it to dinner, as she had to go shopping for a bridesmaid dress."

"I didn't know that one her friends was getting married..." Shirou looks up as a sudden thought occurred to him - "she's not thinking you and I... What did you do to her brain?"

"Ok, so I might have put a little too much juice into that hypnosis, but it shouldn't have brainwashed her or anything – it should have just steered her thoughts into a 'better' channel. She must have already had a couple of screws loose!"

Shirou sighed, "Fine, I guess I can talk Taiga out of her tree later. Right now we should head up to the Ryuudo."

"Now, hold up, Shirou. We still don't know which Servant is up there. And this thing with Archer – I don't trust that little girl's motives. We should wait." Rin prevaricated. Let the other Servants murder each other a little – there was no need to be the first ones rushing into the fight.

"Actually, I agree with Shirou," Saber interrupted. "We should go up to the temple, at least to scout it out. We aren't going to learn anything here." Saber didn't add that the attacks on innocent people was bothering her, but looking at Shirou, she could see the same concern reflected in her fellow knight's eyes.

"Fine, I give up. My own Servant is ganging up on me with... Arg!" Rin threw up her hands in frustration, "I'm going to get my gear together. Be ready in half an hour."

^Trackless^

Shinji floated in pool of worms. The pain was excruciating as they tunneled into his flesh, but after prison, he was used to pain. He even welcomed it, for when it was done, he would be better than he was before. His wounds would be healed, he would be stronger, and he would be able to hurt all those that had hurt him.

And for this, all that he had had to do was to accept grandfather's offer.

He gasped in pain as another piece of grandfather penetrated into him.

^Trackless^

"I think that went well" Illya pranced around her bedroom. Illya had never pranced before, but it was surprisingly enjoyable.

 _'He wasn't totally inept,'_ Archer sent silently, _'But I don't understand why I have to sit out here and watch over him as well. Don't we have a Grail war to win? Besides, I don't like leaving you unprotected.'_ He added.

"You worry too much, I have Stella and Leysritt, and the castle is heavily warded." Illya smiled. This was another new, enjoyable, experience: she had never before had somebody worry about her. _'And we watch over him because he is a good man, just like you. And just like you, he is also an idiot._ '

Archer rolled his eyes, but he couldn't keep a small smile from creeping onto his face. It was extremely strange to have an overprotective older sister. In his memories, Illya was always slightly childish and not very serious. But then again, his Master could be excused - sharing the memories of his life was always a downer.

He went back to observing the Emiya estate from his perch on the Fuyuki river bridge. It was good to be an Archer class.

^Trackless^

Shirou again woke up in a strange place. Except this time, instead of a perky preteen, he was faced with a fae adult woman. "Ah, good. You are awake," she smiled. It did not look quite natural on her face – she was not a woman used to much joy.

"Where am I?" Shirou looked around. He was laying on a small futon in a plain, almost monastic room. Again a big change from waking up on a huge four poster bed in an opulent European style chamber. Somehow, Shirou suspected that there wouldn't be any training with a sardonic Servant here either.

This was not good. He wasn't retrained, but he was pretty confident that he couldn't get past the Servant without being killed.

The last thing he remembered was walking up to the stairs of Ryuudo temple. He had turned back to make a joke to Rin about her not needing to do any cardio this week when everything had faded to black.

"You are at my headquarters, at Ryuudo Temple," The woman's voice was very soft. But that didn't make it comforting. It was too sibilant. "I have a small favor to ask of you: you are a Master in this Grail war, but you lack a servant. I am a Servant, but I don't have a master. I think it would be wise for you to become my Master." She tried to hide it, but she made a small grimace of distaste when she said 'master'.

"Um.." Shirou looked around some more, as he desperately tried to buy time to think. "What class of Servant are you?"

"Why, Caster, of course. " Caster ran a hand along Shirou's jaw in an affectionate fashion, "Come, this is not a hard decision. Become my Master and get a chance to win a wish, or I break your mind and take you by force."


	8. Chapter 8

"How could you have misplace him? He was walking right next to you!" stormed Rin.

Saber was at a loss. One moment all three of them had been approaching the stairs leading up to Ryuudo shrine, and the next there was no Shirou. "Can you check if he was taken by magical means?" There was a row of residential homes set opposite the stairs, and some trees. Not really a lot of places to misplace a tall red head.

"Fine, I'll scry for him. You stand guard, as that's your skill set." Rin walked over to the empty parking spot at the side of the stair and began a mantra. _Obviously_ he had been taken by magical means, but Rin still had a vestige of tact, and decided not to vent her frustrations on her Servant.

Saber didn't show it, but she was also growing upset. Her master was acting surprisingly angry, given that she viewed Shirou as nothing more than a tool. She did not at all appreciate how rare a find a knight of Shirou's caliber was. Yes, he was a little green, but he getting better. And he had all the values of chivalry that she had striven so hard to inculcate in her knights, yet failed to again and again.

And just when she had given up, here he was - a true knight.

Saber tried to treat all the men that fought for her as people. It was not easy, and people often accused her of being cold, but at least she didn't treat them as just a means to an end! She glared at Rin, wishing there was more that she could do to help Shirou. Instead, she kept watch, which was not easy as they were almost completely in the open.

"I hate to interrupt," a voice interrupted. Saber immediately whirled to a guard position as a Servant in a red trench coat draped over black armor faded into view. "But the idiot you are looking for got abducted by Servant Caster. He's currently up in Ryuudo shrine." His shock of white hair looked incongruous against his tanned skin.

"Who are you?" Saber asked. He looked vaguely like Shirou's description of Archer, except he wasn't Gilgamesh, so she was confused.

"I'm Archer. I'm sure Shirou has told you about my master's very odd request that I train him. Well, it gets odder. She asked me to keep on eye on him as well."

Rin and Saber nodded. Both trying to fight off a sense of annoyance at this other woman interfering with their business. Rin finally ground out, "I appreciate her concern. But we will have to discuss this later, after we have rescued Shirou from Caster." Neither she nor Saber moved though. After a few moments, Rin added, "You have to leave. I don't feel comfortable turning my back on a strange Servant, no matter how friendly he is."

"Actually, I'll be coming with you. To rescue the idiot."

"And why does your master have such an interest in Shirou?" Rin asked accusingly.

Archer shrugged, "Beats the hell out of me." But his tone implied that he didn't really care. If his Master wanted it, that was good enough for him.

"Master, we can discuss this later. Right now we need to focus on the rescue," Saber turned and raced up the stairs.

With Rin momentarily distracted, Archer swept her up bridal style and followed behind.

Rin stifled an undignified 'eep' as the two servants almost flew up the stairs. She was about to punch Archer and squirm free when she relented, _'If Saber is so focused on Shirou, I can spend time with foreign Servants.'_ On some level she knew that this thought made no sense, and sounded like a high school girl talking about dating, but she didn't have the time to analyze it.

Half way up the stairs, Saber was confronted by man dressed in a hakama – possibly another Servant – but Archer jumped right over the pair, landing at the entrance to the temple compound.

"Go in. Saber will join us when she can." Rin pushed free of Archer and grabbed a gem as the Servant of the bow stalked into the temple yard.

^Trackless^

Shirou replayed what had just happened, trying to make sense of it.

 _Shirou had just woken up up in a strange place again. Except this time, instead of a perky preteen, he was faced with a fae adult woman. "Ah, good. You are awake," she smiled. It did not look quite natural on her face – she was not a woman used to much joy._ _"Become my Master and get a chance to win a wish, or I break your mind and take you by force."_

Shirou was at a loss for words. He liked to help, but to wake up in a strange room, groggy, and then have an exotic woman make demands of him was a little much. He was having trouble processing what she was asking, even. "There is no need for threats. I can help you once I understand what becoming your Master entails."

"It is simple. We make a contract, and then you go about your business like normal. As long as you stay safe, you can do whatever you wish. The contract will provide me with the mana I need to finish the Grail War."

Shirou nodded as he considered the proposal. He knew very little about how Servants operated, but this sounded reasonable. Rin had explained that a Servant without a master could only stay in this world for a short time before they ran out of mana and were forced back to the Throne of Heroes. "If we make a deal, I want a say in how you fight in the Grail War: we will have to avoid injuring people."

"Yes, yes," Caster nodded. But something about the way she replied, in an off hand, almost dismissive fashion, rang warning bells for Shirou. But Caster couldn't ignore his input - it wasn't like she was planning to lock him up in a room somewhere and just use him as a magical battery: He would be present during her battles with other Servants, and with the command seals he could force her to comply with his requests. And if he ran out of command seals, she would be back to square one, without a Master.

Shirou tried to divine what Caster was thinking from her face, but with her cowl obscuring part of her head, and her face frozen in an aloof smile, it was hard to see anything. "I'm serious. I don't want to use my command seals, but I will if I have to, to protect people."

"Oh, I understand." Another enigmatic smile.

"Ok. How do I make the contract?" Shirou asked. He didn't have a good feeling about this, but he wanted to be polite and not just say 'no' out of hand.

All of a sudden, Caster jerked as if goosed with stick. "We will talk more later."

^Trackless^

Saber deflected another blow from Sasaki Kojirō as at the same time she stepped in and made a counter attack, which missed _._ _'_ _He has the speed of the_ _R_ _ider class, but_ _being_ _locked into this one spot, he can't truly use it_ _'_. It wasn't clear if it was the limited space or a poor link to his master, but Kojira wasn't using his noble phantasm. Without that, Saber was almost able to match his speed. And with the mana from Rin to draw on, Saber could simply out muscle him. While Sasaki could deflect her attacks, each time he did, he posture was jarred slightly askew. And he wasn't enough faster to just dodge. It made retaliating very frustrating for him.

^Trackless^

"I see we have visitors," Caster rose into the air above Archer as he started across the temple yard. A series of mandelas formed on her hands, but before she could cast a spell, Archer released his arrow, forcing her to dodge to the side.

At the same time, a stern faced man in a business suit stepped out of the dormitory building and charged Rin, throwing a combination of punches. Rin barely had a chance to get into a combat stance before he was on her. Rin had trained in martial arts since she was a child, but her attacker was so fast all she was able to do was to defend herself - twisting with the attacks, dodging some of them, and minimizing the damage from the rest. She didn't have time to counter attack.

^Trackless^

Saber slipped inside Sasaki's guard as she deflect his sword upward, slamming a shoulder into his chest, sending him staggering. Before he could recover she twisted from the hips and brought her sword across for a relatively weak strike to his side. Nevertheless, it was still sufficient to cleave all the way through his torso.

^Trackless^

Shirou wasn't certain what was going on. Caster had shoved him into a magic circle in the middle of the room and then disappeared. Now the air reeked of magic and there were sounds of explosions and fighting. He could see flashes of motion through the window, but he couldn't make out what was actually going on from his angle. Shirou examined the circle – it glowed a faint purple, as a gentle reminder that it was empowered and would melt his face off if he tried to cross it.

Shirou took a deep breath and summoned one of the swords that Archer had used against him. The way Archer had kept switching swords had probably been intended to confuse him, but instead it had the opposite effect, filling his mental armory with the plans of dozens of noble phantasms.

Balisarda wasn't a good sword – it was too short for his height, and it was poorly balanced, as if made by an amateur. But it had one useful property - Shirou pushed the the tip through the circle – it sliced enchantments like tissue paper.

As soon as the ward sputtered and faded, he projected a pair of random swords and leaped out the window.

^Trackless^

Illyasviel was just getting into the bath when the wards around her mansion rang like a bell. "Leysritt, please check that out." She grabbed her clothes from her waiting maid. It took her just moments to dress and follow Leysritt out the door. But that was an age, in a situation like this.

As Illya rounded the corner into the main courtyard, she was confronted with a scene of complete chaos. Leysritt ran towards her, "Ochi-sama, get back!" Illya skidded to a halt as Leysritt whirled around and used her pole arm to deflect a pair of flying swords.

The courtyard was littered with more weapons, with Stella arched a foot off the ground, impaled by several of them. Illya held up her arm and activated a command seal _'Archer get over here!'_

^Trackless^

As Shirou rolled out through the window, he was confronted with a scene of utter mayhem. Just in front of him Rin and Saber were fighting against his English teacher, of all people. He was moving like a professional fighter, but two on one was too much for even him, especially when one of those was Saber.

At the same time, Archer had Caster in a stalemate: He was firing arrow after arrow at her as she tried to retaliate with her spells. Archer had a higher rate of fire than she did, but she was able to deflect or dodge all his attacks.

A spell circle began to form around her, but before she could blast Archer, an arrow shot through it, barely missing her hand as she again threw herself to the side.

Shirou took in all this chaos with a quick glance. On the one hand, he had just been having a friendly (if strange) conversation with Caster, but on the other Rin was fighting for her life. Without a moment's hesitation, he charged to aid Rin. She was the only one that really mattered.

Even a professional killer like Souichirou Kuzuki could make a mistake when overwhelmed. When he heard yet another opponent approaching from his rear he turned to deflect the oncoming attack, realizing at the last moment that he had turned too far. As he tried to correct, Saber's invisible sword tore through his back.

"No!" Caster yelled.

Archer smiled and lined up the perfect kill shot at the distracted Servant.

And disappeared.

Caster rained down blasts of power at the remaining combatants. Saber scooped up Shirou and dodged. Rin barely avoided getting hit as she threw herself to the side and rolled out of the way.

"Run for the gate!" She yelled, praying that Caster wouldn't shoot her in the back.

But Caster was distracted: She landed and cradled the former assassin. Her healing abilities were vestigial – she hadn't used them since she was a little girl, before she realized that there was no point in healing people, that the only way to survive in this world was to hurt the people who hurt you. But she called up what she could.

She would kill the impudent ones that had dared hurt her dear Souichirou. Later.

^Trackless^

Archer appeared in the middle of the courtyard just as a Servant in gold armor opened up a magical gate. A dozen swords protruded from it.

"Ah, two can play at that." Archer cast a quick glance to make sure Illya was still ok.

"Finally. The Servant appears. I was growing bored toying with these curs. I hope you can provide me a few moments of amusement before you die."

Archer smiled. There was no question that he was going to kill this arse. But the fact that he was calling his sister names sealed his fate. "I am the bone of my sword," he began his mantra as he charged.

"Tsk. So predicable," swords flew from the Gate of Babylon

Only to be met by replicas flying from behind Archer.

"What? Impossible! How dare you steal my treasures!"

As shards of magical weapons scattered to the ground, Archer continued his advance, going more slowly now.

At the same time, Gilgamesh upped the tempo of attacks, opening the several more gates to unleash Enkidu. But as he did, a spell hit him in the back, disrupting his aim. Archer leaped over the chain as it came shooting out at his feet.

Of all the servants, Archer in red was the best able to counter the Archer in gold.

Archer deflected another attack from Enkidu as he approached towards melee range.

And the Archer in red was a far better swordsman than the Archer in gold.

^Trackless^

Rin panted under cover of a large tree that jutted over the stairs leading from the temple.

"Saber. You grabbed the wrong magus." If she wasn't so out of breath, she would have stormed at Saber with the intensity of a hurricane. But this was more of a fine drizzle.

Saber looked abashed "I.. was going on instinct. I do not know why I did that."

"Well, I appreciate it. But we need to get out of here. We can talk about what happened later." Shirou looked around, This scouting mission had ballooned completely out of proportion. Without pausing to ask, he scooped up Rin.

"Hey!"

"Saber, you need to be able to fight. I'll carry Rin."

"I'm not an invalid!" Rin retorted, but she didn't struggle as Shirou sped down the hillside. It was demeaning, but she didn't want to upset his concentration on the precarious footing. No other reason.

Saber followed watchfully.

^Trackless^

Caster was just stabilizing Kojirou when a faint metallic scent filled her nostrils. She whirled around to see what was causing it.

Or she tried to – an excruciating pain filled her torso.

She glanced down to see a steel point protruding from between her breasts as blood pooled out. _'_ _O_ _h. That's what the smell is.'_ She collapsed forwards, over her beloved master.

Assassin puled his short sword out her corpse and adjusted his skull mask. "It is done."

"Very good. We can use this as our new base of operation," Shinji replied. He hobbled over to inspect Assassin's handiwork. His left foot dragged on the ground, and his left arm hung loose. He also had trouble keeping his head upright, and something frothed between his lips with each breath. But nevertheless, he smiled. "And we will make Emiya pay."


	9. Chapter 9

"What are you doing after school?" Issei asked Shirou. The pair were eating lunch in the student council room as usual: Issei needed to get caught up on his paperwork, and he hated staying after school (the school building was very creepy when nobody was around. Especially lately). It was the day after the battle at Ryuudo temple, and Shirou was somewhat surprised how normal the school day was after all that. All of the students behaved just as they always had, chatting about trivial matters, flirting, cramming for exams. Even Issei.

Shirou finished his drink, "I have a project that I am working on with Tohsaka."

^Trackless^

[[That morning]]

"Shirou, we need to unwind a little after what happened yesterday." Rin had just finished her coffee, and was speaking with great care as Shirou started putting away the breakfast dishes. She had thought her words through very carefully, so that there would be no mistakes despite it being the morning (the hardest time for Tohsakas to concentrate). Especially since they had been up half the night talking about what had happened, and trying to puzzle out what the other players in this War were up to. "Therefore I propose that after school today, we go into town, do a little shopping, a little sight seeing. You know, act like regular teenagers."

^Trackless^

[[now]]

Issei quirked an eyebrow, "I thought she dumped you."

Shirou sighed, "I told you, we aren't dating. We're just friends, and she is tutoring me in a couple of subjects. And before you say anything, yes, I know how to tell if a girl likes you." There was no way that he was telling Issei that for the last couple of days, Tohsaka was living at his place. Because even though the reason was completely logical, and was just a matter of logistics, he would never be able to explain it to his friend without telling him about the Grail war. And maybe not even then.

Issei nodded. He was pretty confident that Shirou actually had no idea about girls, "And how is that?"

"She pays extra attention to you, and is nice, helping you with stuff. You know, stuff that she doesn't do for her other friends." Shirou was mentally cataloging all the things Sakura used to do.

"You mean like tutoring you? For over a year?" Issei asked. "You know that there is a reason that most people think that Tohsaka is an unapproachable ice princess. It's because she IS an unapproachable ice princess. She told the last guy who asked for her phone number that she didn't have one." Not that the idiot hadn't deserved it - couldn't he tell that there was something seriously weird with that girl? Issei had given up on warning Shirou off – his friend had a hero complex so huge that telling him a girl was trouble would just encourage him. He would spend time with her in order to 'rescue her from herself' or something.

"Umm." Shirou had a hard time processing that. "I don't think your right. But I'll consider it," No he wouldn't. He actually would do his best to avoid thinking about it – he liked the way things were right now. "I heard there was some sort of commotion up at the temple?" He quickly segued.

"Yeah, A bunch of hooligans broke in and vandalized the place. What I don't understand is how they did it without waking anybody up – my dad is usually a light sleeper."

^Trackless^

Rin led the trio down through the array of shops in the touristy part of Fuyuki. While Fuyuki was mostly an industrial city, it did have a pretty nice shopping section, and a few scenic places to walk (such as the neighborhood where the Tohsaka mansion was located).

Rin glanced behind her. Things were not going well. This was supposed to be a casual (romantic?) stroll with Shirou (significant male friend that Rin refused to prematurely categorize) and Saber (Servant, whom Rin was was doing her best to relegate to that status exclusively in her mind).

Except it wasn't working quite right. Right after school, Rin and Shirou had picked up Saber from the coffee shop where she had been waiting, and since then Shirou had been talking to Saber. Exclusively. And Saber had thawed enough so that she was smiling back at him (which she never did with Rin. Not that Rin wanted that.)

"You have been staring at that lion for the last five minutes." They were currently in a toy shop, and Shirou had noticed Saber's fixation, "Do you want me to get it for you?" he asked.

"No, that would not be appropriate," Saber reacted strongly, "I am a Servant!"

Shirou threw up his hands, "Fine, fine. Then how about we have spar when we get back? I need to improve my fighting skills so I can be of more use."

Saber's face lit up, but before she could say anything, Rin interrupted, "Are you stupid? Sparing with a Servant? You will get injured."

"I can restrain myself." Saber replied, disapprovingly. "I will work Shirou hard, but he will be perfectly safe!" Shirou's eagerness to defend what was right reminded her so much of Lancelot, except without the awkwardness with Gweniver. He was the best part of her relationship with her chief knight.

"Fine. You two have fun with each other!" Rin stormed out.

"Rin!" Shirou turned and ran after her. Rin burst out of the shop and ran up the road. She didn't slow until she was half way over Fuyuki river bridge.

"Rin!" Shirou ran up behind her. He was about to reach out to her shoulder, to turn her to face him, but hesitated. Rin looked far angrier than he had ever seen her. "Rin, the reason I want to train with Saber is so that I can protect you."

Rin stopped, but didn't turn around. There weren't many pedestrians on the bridge, and with the wind blowing their words away, it was a surprisingly private area. "Oh? You just want to train with her? Is that why you've spent all afternoon talking with her? What else do you want to do with her?"

"Saber is very easy to talk to." Shirou tried to explain.

"And I am difficult?" Rin interrupted. She knew she was. That was the point of the school idol persona she had crafted – to push people away so that they wouldn't annoy her. But that wasn't directed at Shirou.

Shirou collected his thoughts. He really wasn't very good at this. He was almost certain that Issei was wrong about Rin. But that didn't mean he was completely wrong: "Yes, you are. Because I like you."

Rin froze. "Oh." She wasn't certain how to respond to that – she was a Magus, and as such, she was supposed to put her own feelings aside in order to focus on improving her magecraft. And she had tried. But too much was going on – stuff was slipping out of her control. _'I'll_ _figure out what to do about Shirou_ _later.'_ She couldn't deal with all of this right now. "Come on, Baka, let's go home."

Saber trailed along behind the two teens. She had been pretty far back during their conversation, but her hearing was super human. So it was no surprise that she had heard Shirou's words. But the pain from them was. _'Maybe I'm Lancelot in this scenario.'_

 _^Trackless^_

Shirou flung himself sideways, hoping to get in at least a glancing blow on his opponent as he barely dodged another attack. But Saber was too fast, stepping out of the way as she landed a solid hit on his side with the shinai. Shirou rolled with the strike and came up into a stance, wobbling slightly.

"That is good. You are providing me more of a challenge than I expect. What you lack in speed you make up with your unorthodox technique." Saber calmly analyzed Shirou's stance. She had taken the redhead up on his offer of training. _'If we are both going to be defending Rin, then I want my partner to be at the peak of his ability.'_ She was not going to consider anything else. She would be professional about this.

"Thanks," Shirou gasped. His arms were shaking from fatigue, and his head hurt from maintaining reinforcement. They had been going for almost an hour. He made sure that his stance was a little off. He had learned that trick from Archer. Leave an opening, and then you know where your opponent will attack. Saber had learned to ignore his obvious openings, but that meant she had to smash through his defense to create new ones – all others were potentially a trap.

"That's enough!" Rin walked into the dojo, "Taiga is going to be here soon, and we need dinner."

"Right. I'll get right on that."

"Baka. I don't understand why you insist on trying to fight Servants – there is no way that you will be able to match their ability – but as long as you are going to wear yourself out being stupid, I might as well cook dinner." Secretly, Rin hoped that all this training would make Shirou too tired to participate in her expedition back to the shrine tonight. Cooking dinner so that Saber could wipe the floor with him was a small sacrifice. She caught herself looking at how Shirou's sweat drenched shirt clung to his chest and quickly glanced away. _'This is getting complicated.'_

"Great!" Shirou smiled. Life had become much simpler since he had confessed to Tohsaka (She hadn't acknowledged it in any way, but that was fine - he hadn't expected her to). All he needed to do was to keep her safe. Everything else was secondary. "So what's the plan for tonight?"

Rin sighed. There was no way that she would be able to convince Shirou to stay home. And honestly, having him along might be useful (at least Shirou wasn't bringing up their conversation from earlier). "I want to go back to Ryuudo temple – Caster's master is either dead or badly injured, so she won't be able to fight effectively. Who knows, maybe we'll luck out and she will have run out of mana and been forced back to the Throne of Heroes."

Saber nodded approval. And it made sense to include Shirou. He might not be able to take on a knight class Servant, but if he could get in close he would be a credible threat to a Caster.

^Trackless^

"There's nobody up here." Shirou ventured. They were scouting around the temple complex, and everything was quiet. He couldn't smell any new magics.

"Stay cautious – I can sense a Servant nearby." Saber had her invisible sword in hand as she scanned the buildings. Rin had already cast a spell to keep the residents asleep, in case a fight broke out (It was the easiest way to keep the mundanes from interfering, though it gave Rin a perverse pleasure to ensorcel that idiot Issei).

"Oh, very good. You can state the obvious!" Shinji shuffled into view. He walked jerkily, more like a marionette with its strings tangled than a person.

"I forgot about that worm," Rin took a closer look at Shinji as he entered the circle of light spilled by one of the lamps mounted on the temple wall and did a double take – there were actual worms dribbling out of his mouth. "What happened to you?"

"There is a price for being able to do magic when you are born without any magic circuits." He laughed in a huffing, broken fashion. He made a gesture, and the blindfolded women in the rags faded into view. "We should do his properly. Let me introduce you to my servant, Berserker," he bowed and pointed to the woman. Her hair writhed unnaturally, but she otherwise stood stock still.

And then several things happened all at once

"Look out!" Archer flashed into view behind Rin, deflecting a pair of daggers that were flying at her back.

At the same time Berserker leaped forward with a snarl, a pair of spikes held like daggers in her hands.

"Where did those come from?" Shirou asked about the daggers, but rather than replying, Archer leaped forward to engage an opponent. It was a man in a worn cloak and a skull mask, and despite being just a few feet away, nobody save Archer had noticed him. But Archer was not moving well: His armor had several gashes in it, and his coat was missing one arm.

Getting no answer, Shirou leaped to attack Shinji, a pair of short swords that matched Archers in his hands. A cloud of insects blocked his vision, but Shirou slashed out with both swords as he leaped through the cloud: His reinforced skin would stop the bites from penetrating.

Shinji back pedaled, "You didn't used to be so violent." He was surprised – he had expected Shirou to try to talk him into a compromise. Not this. The red head hadn't said a word, and he was coming in for the kill. The 'fake janitor' was radiating a killing intent that scared even him, and he had experience with some scary dudes.

Shirou ducked under a blast of acidic bugs and lashed out with his right hand sword, cutting Shinji's leg off at the knee. Shirou usually hated the idea of even a single person dying. But the anger he had felt at Shinji was still strong. The fire had been banked and smoldered for years, but now it had burst forth and enveloped him. He wanted to be a Hero of Justice. He wasn't certain what that meant any more, but maybe it was Justice that some people had to die.

As Shinji collapsed, screaming in pain, a flood of inky blackness filled with insects poured out of his leg in place of blood. Or maybe the insects were shaped from the blackness.

Shirou barely threw himself out of the way as they boiled out, many more than could fit inside a small man like Shinji.

As he circled the growing pool of seething vermin, Shirou glanced at the other combatants. Which was a mistake: Berserker had removed her blindfold, and even glancing in her direction gave him shooting pains in his head, and made him stagger. Saber was mostly undeterred by the assault, but Rin, who had been right next to the blond swordswoman, was frozen, unable to retreat.

Saber was forced to fight in place to defend her Master, giving the advantage to Berserker.

Archer, on the other hand, was struggling against Assassin. The way he was holding himself implied he was already badly injured. _'What_ _happened_ _to him?'_

^Trackless^

[[earlier]]

Archer was pressing in on Gilgamesh, countering all of his attacks as he steadily advanced towards melee range. Which is when it all went wrong.

A panicked scream came from the corridor leading to the courtyard as Gilgamesh's magic chain burst forth, dragging Illya by the foot.

"Illya!" Archer dashed towards his step sister, but was forced to dodge by a rain of swords. Before he could reach her, a spear ripped through her body, pinning her to the ground.

"Without a Master, there is no reason for you to keep fighting. Go seek out a new Master. If you make it in time, we may have a rematch."

With a roar, Archer changed direction and lunged at Gilgamesh. The latter swore, "Right, you're also an Archer." He had expected killing the Master to incapacitate the Servant, but it had just enraged him.

Archer battled through an array of weapons shooting towards him. Most he deflected, but a dagger slipped through, plunging deep into his side. A huge flaming wheel almost took his arm off. But Gilgamesh was getting desperate. He finally reached into the gate to pull out his trump card, Ea, when Enkidu wrapped around his neck

"Urk," he scrabbled at the chain, dropping his concentration momentarily.

"Anything you can do, I can do better." Archer jammed a pair of spears through Gilgamesh's torso, driving him down and pinning him to the ground.

^Trackless^

[[now]]

Assassin smashed his deformed arm right into Archer's injured side. The two opponents were fighting in such close proximity that neither could take a full swing at the other. As Archer gasped in pain, Assassin plunged a dagger at his neck, but the Servant in red flung up his arm, so the dagger pierced into that instead.

Archer was startling to sparkle as his mana reserves ran dry from the intense battle. Seeing this, Assassin smiled behind his mask and yanked on his dagger, pulling his opponent of balance.

Archer staggered and fell forwards. Seeing an opening, Assassin reached for his demon sword to finish off his opponent, only to gasp in pain himself.

Archer had turned his sprawl into a lunge, jamming a sword right into Assassin. Before the stealthy Servant could recover from the almost mortal wound, Archer yanked out the dagger that was lodged in his arm and with the last of his strength slammed it so hard into Assassin's neck that it decapitate the Servant. And so Assassin died as he lived, killed by a nameless weapon.

^Trackless^

Shirou slowly circled towards Rin. "I'll protect her. You take Berserker," he yelled to Saber.

Saber nodded and took the offensive, trusting Shirou to guard her master. He might not be the most skilled warrior, but he was reliable.

With the greater freedom of motion, she pressed her attack on Berserker. Berserker's hair moved like it was alive, obscuring Saber's vision as the frenzied servant fought with total abandon. She had dropped her spikes, and was attacking with her hands like they were claws. Meeting her gaze would freeze her opponent, and even just being in her presence was disorienting.

Unfortunately for her, Saber was immune to most magics. Saber blocked Berserker's claws and body checked the other woman, sending her staggering back towards the mass of black bugs that had swallowed Shinji. She brought her sword around for a strike at Berserker's mid section, but the purple haired Servant grabbed the invisible sword in a claw and jerked Saber forward.

Which accomplished nothing: Saber's stance was too solid, and she instead whipped Excalibur free of Berserker's grip. The black mass of chittering insects enveloped their feet as they fought.

Shirou tried to get Rin to move away from the battle, but she didn't budge, standing frozen, staring at Berserker. Shirou began to wonder if she had been turned to stone. Desperately, he stepped between her and Berserker (careful to avoid looking directly at the Servant), and that finally freed her from the spell, "I'm going to hurl." Rin curled up and vomited onto the ground, barely missing Shirou. "Sorry," she gasped weekly, looking embarrassed.

Shirou just pulled her up and then led her towards the edge of the compound. "We need to get back. Saber can deal with Berserker, but only if she doesn't have to worry about you."

Saber was driving Berserker back. But despite being the superior fighter, she was having a hard time finding an opening – Berserker's hair was as strong as steel, and she fought in such an inhuman, animalistic fashion that it was hard to predict her motions.

And the bugs were almost knee deep. Saber was about to leap backwards and disengage when Berserker lunged forwards, accepting a mortal slash across her chest to grab Saber, twist and throw the both of them into the seething mass.

Shirou paused as the mental pressure from Berserker disappeared. "Ok, what happened?" He turned to look back to where the Servants had been fighting. He barely had time to block the attack as Berserker exploded out of the huge pile of bugs. He tried to push Rin behind him, but the magus was furious.

"You're not doing that to me again!" She stepped out and jammed a large gem into Berserker's side, detonating it at point blank range.

The explosion knocked all three combatants sprawling. Shirou was the first to regain his feet. He reinforced himself to the breaking point and charged Berserker, Kanshou and a dagger, Carnwennan in his hands. Carnwennan shrouded him in shadow. It didn't hamper Berserker, but it blocked her stunning looks from slowing Shirou.

Rin got to one knee and pushed herself upright. _'o_ _k_ _, that was a bad idea.'_ She had one more gem with her, and she palmed that, ready to throw it as soon as she could tell which of the Berserker's fighting Shirou was real. Fortunately, there were an equal number of Shirou's attacking the triplicated servant.

Berserker was badly wounded, the slash on the front was bleeding, and Rin's attack had left a burn on her side. And Shirou came in with a ferocity that matched hers. The pair fought, moving so quickly that Rin could barely make it out.

Rin had always been taught that a regular human was no match for a Servant. But Shirou made his own rules. _'He's actually keeping up.'_ Rin wanted to help, but she was scared that she would hit Shirou if she tried. And she was equally scared that if she didn't, that Berserker would kill Shirou

And then it happened: As she watched, Berserker slipped under Shirou's guard, darting in to tackle him to the ground. Shirou twisted, dropping his sword, but it was too late to get clear.

As Berserker made contact with him, Shirou twisted even more, plunging Carnwennan into Berserker's back. Using that as leverage he pushed himself clear. Before his opponent could recover, another copy of Kanshou appeared in his right hand, plunging up for the killing blow into her torso.

As Shirou gasped for air, the bugs heaved and Saber staggered free.

Rin grabbed her to keep her from toppling, "Are you ok?"

Saber nodded. She was covered in black stains, and her hair had been bleached an even whiter blond. "We need to get away from that swarm." Her voice was also rough and husky.

With Rin supporting her and Shirou staggering after, the trio made their way out of Ryuudo temple

* * *

as an aside: I see Shirou's drive to be a Hero as a sort of unrequited love for all humanity. So he is fine with his affections not being reciprocated.


	10. Chapter 10

a Guest reviewer wrote"His {Shirou's}drive to be a hero is ptsd, kiritsugu and wanting his survival to have meaning."

True, the fire was the original impetus. But just like emotions can lead to actions, actions can lead to emotions, and spending your life sacrificing to help others is a symptom of love, albeit not a healthy one.

It's more like the sort of love triggered by Stockholm syndrome

* * *

START

Rin collapsed on the couch. The trio had just gotten back to the Emya house from the battle at Ryuudo shrine, and everybody was exhaustive. Fighting was exceptionally tiring. Shirou was just glad that the battle hadn't caused much property damage, this time around (not having a Caster in the mix accounted for that)

"I get the bath after Saber's done," Rin called out. Shirou was in the kitchen, making tea. Not that anybody wanted it, but cooking was how he relaxed when he was keyed up.

"I think she'll be a while. She was coated in crushed bugs and god knows what else."

"Yeah." That had been gross. Really gross, "Do you think she's ok? She looked pretty worn out when we got back." Moth eaten would have been a better description.

Shirou brought the tea service into the dining room. "You would know better than I – she's your Servant."

"Thanks." Rin took a cup and a couple of cookies. They were ones that she had brought over, just last week. God. That felt like it had been another lifetime. Back when Shirou was just the guy she tutored, not... She had no idea what their relationship was now. She wasn't even certain what she wanted it to be.

"As to Saber. I don't know. She says she's fine, but she didn't look good." Rin scowled. Why wouldn't any of her teammates tell her what was really gone on with them?

Shirou sat down opposite her, completely oblivious to her inner turmoil. In his defense, Rin made sure that everybody was oblivious to what was going on in her mind. It was safer that way.

 _'Well, for now, he's an ally. A very dependable one.'_

"How many Servants is that?" Shirou interrupted her introspection. "I mean that we know are out of action? I took out Berserker, we saw Archer run out of mana killing Assassin. Saber dealt with Rider on the stairs. And somebody must have finished off Caster after we last saw her, or she would have had control of Ryuudo. So that leaves just Saber and Lancer."

"Unless one of the others took out Lancer." Rin thought for a moment. "I hate to say it, but we should check in with Kirei. He's the overseer for this ritual, so he will know if Caster is really gone, and if Lancer is the last opponent." The war was almost over. And then her life could go back to normal. She glanced at Shirou. And she would have to deal with 'that'. Yay.

Saber walked in, dressed in a slightly old fashioned blue dress, a towel wrapped around her hair.

"Who is going where?" She scowled at Rin.

[[earlier]]

Saber tried to fight her way out of the bugs. The vile worms were everywhere, covering her, trying to tunnel into her body, trying to tunnel into her mind.

 _'_ _Y_ _es, they are filthy. But they are no worse tha_ _n_ _you deserve. You're_ _a worm. Everything you have done has lead to nothing. All you can do is destroy._ _'_ Saber had no idea where that thought had come from, but it resonated strangely. _'I ruined Camelot. I ruined Shirou. I am no good even as a servant - I keep finding flaws with my_ _m_ _aster.'_

She swung Excalibur, but you can't cleave worms.

[[now]]

"We were talking about checking in with the overseer tomorrow, to find out which servants are still around."

"Why was I not asked?" Did they not value her input? She had been a king! Maybe she had made mistakes, but she still had more experience in war, in life, in EVERYTHING, than her 'master'. Anger she did not know she harbored began to well up from inside of her.

"You were in the bath," Shirou replied simply, handing her a cup.

Sabers face broke out in a smile, "Thank you. Your tea is always welcome." She sat down with the other two, her rage forgotten.

^Trackless^

She struck down another Saxon savage. They kept swarming in like bugs. Each one was poorly armed, and wearing only scraps of armor. She cut a swath through them, but there was always more. Her rage built as the vermin overwhelmed her men-at-arms, one after another. With a roar, she rallied her men.

^Trackless^

Rin started awake, shivering badly. _'Another of Saber's dreams.'_ She had shared her Servant's dreams several time, but none had been so visceral, so angry. Saber was usually cool and collected (sometimes too much so).

This was different. It had been bloody, with the carnage everywhere, and Saber had been a berserker, cleaving the Saxons left and right, almost without purpose.

Rin was worried about her Servant, but she wasn't certain what she could do.

And then there was the Shirou problem. Specifically, his 'confession'. The big lunk refused to get a clue. She wanted him to just give up and move on with his life. And it had to be his idea, otherwise he would be hurt.

She realized that she wasn't being terribly rational about it, but that didn't change the fact that she had no idea what to do.

Rin slid out of bed and went to get a drink of water to calm her nerves. _'I might as well get ready for school.'_ Going to school, all of her old 'normal' life felt so alien. But she needed to keep up the facade. If only for her sanity.

^Trackless^

Shirou walked to school. It was strange – despite all of the turmoil of the past few days, he was looking forwards to this evening, and to the Grail War. He felt like he was finally doing something worthwhile. Fighting Servants, keeping them from running amok, protecting Rin. This must be what being a 'Hero of Justice' was all about. It was hard work, but satisfying.

"Hey, got some time to drop by archery today after class?" Ayako intercepted him as he walked into school. She looked unusually intent.

"Uhm, sorry, no," Shirou replied. He hated saying 'no' to anybody, But Rin wanted to head to Kotomine church right after class. And Shirou also wanted to get that chore over with during daylight hours - maybe the 'fake priest' (as Rin called him) would be less creepy during the day.

"Huh," Ayako paused, before bulling on ahead, "I saw you walking with Rin again yesterday. Are you two dating now?"

Shirou paused, "I don't know. Maybe?"

Ayako gave a sigh before forcing a smile, "well, good luck. I guess I'll see you around, in class." And rushed off.

^Trackless^

Rin met Shirou right after school let out. She had been leaning against the wall, and as soon as he exited the school, she fell into step with him, "Ayako cornered me at lunch today. I informed her that we are not dating?" She pronounced. She had intended that statement to shut down any inappropriate thoughts that Shirou might have had, but it sounded wishy washy, even to her own ears.

Saber nodded her approval of Rin's comment as she joined the pair. The trio walked out to the outskirts of town where the church was located.

Even in the day, there was something just wrong with the place. It was a simple, plain building, but it radiated a palpable menace.

"Ok, Shirou, best behavior. I know you don't like Kirei, but don't kill him." Rin commanded as she led the way into the poorly lit interior. Even Rin disliked visiting her mentor here – it always felt a dank cave.

"Ah, good afternoon, Rin! What brings you to my humble church?" Kotomine Kirei greeted them as they walked in. He appeared to be quite cheerful, for some reason. Rin claimed that whenever Kirei was cheerful, it was a sure sign that he had been molesting small dogs. "And how is the Grail War going? Is it treating you well, hmm?"

"Actually, that's what we came to ask you," Rin replied. Shirou stood on guard next to her as Saber paced the pews. "How many Servants are left?"

"Why, Rin, you know I can't tell you that. You're going to have to find that out for yourself. You know that there's at least one left." Kirei turned to Saber, "So, what is your wish? Has it been worth the struggle? Or are you finding that it is all futile?" There was a manic edge to his humor, as if he wasn't fully in control of himself. Either something really good had happened to him recently, or something really awful. Or both.

Saber paused and considered, "My wish?" she frowned. She had had a purpose for participating in the Grail War. But she couldn't remember what it was. It had been something foolish. Now, She wasn't certain what she wanted. It was all muddled in her head. "Shirou?"

At this Kirei laughed out loud, "Oh, how petty. But quite understandable. Shirou is a remarkable individual. If word was to get out of his skill with projection magic, the clocktower would scoop him up. Hmm. Or, maybe, I'll just keep him myself."

Rin felt like ice formed on her spine _'He knows!'_

At the same time, a sudden hot rage flashed through Saber at the corrupt priest's callous mention of taking her Shirou. She swung her hand to point at Kirei.

At the last moment, he noticed that her hand was held oddly, almost clenched.

 _'She's holding her invisible sword!'_ was his last thought. Kirei's body collapsed to the ground as his head rolled a few feet towards Rin.

"Saber, you can't kill the overseer!" Rin protested, belatedly. She was slightly in shock - the whole thing had happened so fast, without any provocation.

Shirou stepped towards Saber, "Saber, are you ok?"

Saber didn't reply, instead backhanding him out of the way as she leaped at Rin. The young magus barely dodged aside as the invisible sword bit deep into the pew next to where she had been standing.

Shirou created Kanshou and Bakuya and leaped to Rin's defense, "Saber, stop. This isn't normal!"

Saber barely looked as she swept her sword back at him, as if to knock away an annoying insect. Shirou blocked, but didn't try to retaliate, instead moving to place himself between Saber and Rin.

Rin staggered to her feet in horror. The way Saber was attacking, it was just a matter of time before Saber killed Shirou. Rin glanced down at her command seals. They represented her goal since she was a child. She had worked to be the best magus she could be. The best magus of her generation. And winning the Holy Grail war would prove that - that she was the best, that she always succeeded. She looked up as Shirou barely deflected another attack from Saber.

But she realized that Shirou was more important than all of that. "Saber, return to the Throne of Heroes!" a command seal faded, but not completely. Saber paused as the command hit her, but then continued her attacks.

"The command seals aren't working!"

Saber was furious. How dare these vermin stand in her way. There was always somebody blocking her from doing what she wanted, trapping her in a joyless, pain filled existence. They were like bugs, everywhere, biting. She wold crush them all! And then she would take Shirou. That would put a stop to the pain.

"Shirou, I order you to stop fighting me," Saber roared.

Shirou leaped out of the way of another of Saber's wild attacks, coming down next to Rin. He had just gotten back into a fighting stance when one of the stained glass windows burst inwards and Lancer landed in front of Saber.

"We never finished our fight from before." He blocked an attack from Saber, "And while you may not be at your best right now, I think this will be our last opportunity." He retaliated, but Saber was too fast.

"Hey, boyo" He called out to Shirou as he fought, "My Master is dead, and I can only keep this up for a couple of minutes on my own. Make a contract with me and I'll keep you alive!"

Shirou was quivering with fatigue – he had over-reinforced himself, pushing himself to the breaking point yet again. Lancer side stepped another attack and jabbed at Saber. Without Lancer's help, they would surely die.

"How? I am not a Master."

"You have command seals. On your arm – they are faint because you never contracted a Servant, but they are there." Rin replied.

Shirou scowled. So it was possible. Illya had mentioned something about him having command seals, but he had assumed that they were non-functional (like most of his magic). But did he want to do this? This was Saber. His ally. His friend. How could he support another servant to attack her?

"Shirou, there is something wrong with Saber – something has taken control of her. Take Lancer's offer." Rin knew Shirou well enough to know why he was hesitating – he wanted to protect everybody.

Shirou nodded. "Lancer, I will take you as my Servant." A light flared through his arm. Apparently, Lancer also felt something, as he didn't quite block an attack, flinging himself out of the way at the last moment as Sabers sword trailed a line of red across his chest.

"Run!" Rin grabbed Shirou and dragged him out of the church.

"Why didn't you tell me? That I could summon a servant?" Shirou asked as he leaped over a low fence to cut though the graveyard.

"Because you couldn't – all the Servants had been summoned." Rin replied. She knew that Shirou would accept that argument. It was the safe answer. But it wasn't the complete answer - there were other ways to use Command Seals. She knew that, even if Shirou didn't. A moment later, she added, "I wanted to win."

Shirou didn't say anything, but Rin knew that the second answer (the real answer) had hurt him. He didn't understand, but now was not the time to explain.

"I think we are far enough away." They had crossed the cemetery and into the woods beyond. Shirou dropped into a ravine and held up his arm. "Lancer, come here." A command seal faded.

Lancer materialized, teleported instantly from his batten. "What? Why didn't you let me finish the battle? It was a fair fight."

"Saber's a friend. We need to rescue her from whatever has taken control of her." Rin explained.

Lancer considered this before breaking out into a smile, "And then we can have out duel. She really was a little off – I would hate to kill her when she isn't at her best."

Shirou opened his mouth to protest, but Rin quickly interrupted, "We need to get to the Greater Grail. If I can access that, I may be able to over-ride whatever has taken control of Saber."

As Shirou opened his mouth again, Lancer interrupted, "My previous master had me scout out the way to the Greater Gail. I will lead you."

Shirou took a breath, but Rin replied first, "Ok, let's go."

^Trackless^

Rin wasn't certain if she trusted this Lancer, but he was their only option. She followed him up the hillside leading to Ryuudo temple. _'_ _We keep coming back here. Everything revolves around Ryuudo_ _'._ She glanced at Shirou. He was on guard, swords in each hand. He looked almost as dangerous as a Servant himself.

Rin wasn't certain what to think of all this. She hadn't wanted him here, but here he was. And of all of her companions, he was the most trustworthy. More than Saber. It was too bad she didn't get him as her Servant.

The path that Lancer led them up was barely visible, but as they drew near the top, they could see a tunnel leading into the hillside. They were almost there when both Rin and Shirou flinched as a pain flashed through them. Lancer, on the other hand. collapsed to the ground.

"What? Was that?"

Rin shook her head, trying to clear it. "Somebody just injected a spell into the lei line."

Shinji sniffed, "It smells like the high school did."

Rin's inhaled sharply in shock, and Shirou's eyes grew big as he realized what he had said. Lancer got to his feet, "either of you care to explain?"

"Somebody wants to vampire the entire population of Fuyuki. Like Caster, except where Caster was using a needle, this will be a fire-hose." Rin didn't wait for Shirou to add the obligatory, 'we need to stop them.' She palmed a gem and slipped into the cavern, letting the guys follow.

The passage was longer than expected – they had to walk a good ten minutes through a narrow, winding tunnel before the passageway opened up into a cavern awash with mana. The amount was so stupefying that Lancer looked drunk. In the middle of the cavern stood a glowing pillar. Each time light pulsed out from it, Lancer staggered.

Saber was having no such problems: She was standing facing them. Even in the golden light coming off of the pillar, she looked pale and washed out. Her face and hair were white, with black streaks under her eyes, and her dress looked worm eaten.

Behind her a wrinkled old man stood by the pillar, caressing it, as an inky _something_ flowed out from him and into it. At his feet was a seething mass of worms that had spread out to fill half the room.

"That's the Greater Grail. Or the physical manifestation of it." Rin looked on in trepidation. Magically speaking, that thing was an avalanche. If you messed with it, you would get crushed.

Rin tore her gaze away from the grail, to her erstwhile Servant. "Saber, please..." she began.

"Rin. I have realized that you are not my true master. Shirou was the one destined for that role." Saber took a fighting stance.

Lancer charged her, "Hey, lassie, I'm your dance partner, remember?"

Saber deflects his attack. But her focus remained on reaching Rin. After a furious exchange of blows, she managed to force Lancer to step aside, pushing him towards the pillar and the worms.

As Lancer jumped back to avoid another of Saber's attacks, the worms began two wriggle up his feet. He leaped away, but the worms pulled themselves into a man high figure, coalescing into Shinji.

The worm-man grabbed at Lancer, moving faster than humanly possible.

Seeing Lancer thus occupied, Saber turned back towards Rin again, "You will release me." Before her master could reply, Saber dashed in, striking to decapitate the Tohsaka as the magus paused to reply.

Rin was momentarily caught flat footed, and as Saber attacked, she saw her death in the face of the angry white haired woman.

*Clank*

Rin was surprised as another sword blocked Saber's attack.

"I can't let you hurt her." Shirou took up a guard position, "I am sorry, Saber, but if you try, I will have to stop you."

Rin staggered back a few steps and drew back her arm to throw one of her gems at Saber when instinct made her throw herself to the ground as a surge of flying bugs blasted through the air above her head, where she had been moments before.

Rin rolled to her feet, facing the old man, "Zoukan, what is your role in all this?"

The old man smiled widely, "Heh." His voice was soft and rheumy. "Everything. I thought my plans were ruined when Shinji managed to get your sister killed, but he then kindly volunteered to replace her." Rin used Gandr to destroy a pair of acidic bugs that flew at her. Zoukan gestured towards where Lancer fought Shinji. Or a Shinji-shaped construct made from worms, "I don't think there is much left of the poor boy, but he has atoned nicely for his sins." He sent another swarm of flying vermin at Rin.

Shirou was barely holding his own. He was pushing himself to go faster, but he was barely able to block Saber's attacks, and he suspected that he was only managing that much because she was actively trying to avoid killing him. His lungs burned, and his muscles were tearing themselves apart from over-reinforcement.

Lancer ducked and faked a jab at Shinji. As his opponent tried to get out of the way, Lancer speared him through his heart. "And that is that." The servant let the dead man slide off of his spear.

And not a moment too soon – Lancer rushed over to assist Shirou as the redhead collapsed to the ground. "Now missy. That wasn't fair. He's just not at the same level as you and me, though I have to admit he put up a good fight. Better than the other sod." Lancer pressed his attack.

Saber's face curled into a silent snarl. She was tired. Why did all these insects keep getting in her way? She finally knew what she wanted. It was simple. It was attainable. But vermin kept blocking her way. She wold have to crush all all of them, and start afresh.

Rin used her Gandr spell to deflect Zoukan's bugs as she wove back and forth around the other Magus, spiraling inwards. She knew there was no way she could match his magic for long, but in hand to hand... he was an old man.

She ducked under a final bug blast and sprang forwards, punching at Zoukan's head.

Only for her hand to pass clear through the head as it momentarily turned to worms.

"Ew!" Rin was so grossed out that she barely dodged the counter attack. Several of the bugs latch onto her sweater and began to eat through it. Rin immediately pulled her sweater off and threw at it the bug mage, not at all discomfited in continuing the fight with nothing on her top half except a frilly bra.

Rin's reputation wasn't just based on just her theoretical skills at Magecraft. She was also a remarkably fast thinker. As Zoukan threw the sweater to the ground, she again darted in and threw a punch at him.

Lancer was having a blast. Saber was the best warrior he had ever fought, in this Grail War or in life. He crouched down to dash in for another attack when somebody grabbed him by the shoulders. He turned in surprise to see Shinji holding tight. Before he could push him off, Saber stepped in and brought Excalibur down to cleave through the both of them.

As Rin punched at Zoukan's chest, the decrepit mage again turned to worms, but this time, she had something in her hand – she released a gem as she pulled her hand back.

When Zoukan re-solidified, his expression became momentarily puzzled before his chest flashed orange, red, and then blew out in a gout of fire and worm guts.

At the same time, Saber dropped to her knees.

Rin looked around. The worms were all writhing as if cut in twain. Saber did not look much better.

"Shirou!" The red head staggered up, but he was completely spent. "Can you walk?" Rin glanced at Saber – the other woman looked stunned, but she still had the thousand yard stare and the washed out look as before: She had not returned to normal.

Shirou nodded, but it was clear that his body didn't agree with that assessment. Rin gave one last glance over at Saber as she put his arm over her shoulder and led him out of the cave. She wasn't certain if Saber's thrall would dissipate with the destruction of Zoukan, but she wasn't going to take a risk.

"What about Saber?" Shirou managed to rasp out as they approached the cave mouth.

"We get out of here first. If Saber is restored back to her usual self, she will rendezvous with us at home. Otherwise.."

Otherwise, Saber would confront them as they fled. Shirou managed to knock both Rin and himself to the ground as Saber leaped through the space they had occupied a moment before.

He staggered back up. Saber was now blocking the exit. "Drop your weapons, Shirou. There is no reason for you to fight me. I am your Servant."

Shirou glanced over at Rin, who had slammed hard into the cavern wall, her right arm was badly gouged and bleeding from the jagged rocks that made up the passageway walls.

"You're right." He let his two swords dissolve back into mana. "How do I do this?" he asked holding out his arm with the command seals.

But Saber had her own conception of what it meant to be Shirou's servant. She ignored the proffered arm, instead stepping in for a passionate kiss, wrapping an arm behind Shirou's head as she used the other to pull him close.

Rin recovered in time to look up and to see Shirou's arms slowly closed around her former Servant, locking the two of them in a passionate embrace. It was remarkably painful watching the man she might be attracted to making out with another woman, but she couldn't tear her eyes off of them either.

She knew that there was something wrong with Saber, but Shirou was enjoying the experience as well, as Saber gave a small moan.

Rin looked away, embarrassed, and started edging along the cavern wall, to see if she could sneak past the couple while they were occupied. She was almost even with them when Saber dissolved into a mist of sparkles in Shirou's arms.

Shirou held her until she was completely gone. "So.. Is that it?"

Rin took a moment, hugging her arms across her chest, before she replied "Yes. It's all over."


	11. Chapter 11

[[a couple of months later]]

"So what's your plan?" Graduation was in a couple of days, and Shirou was eating lunch with Issei for what was probably the last time.

Before he could answer, the building began to shake. Both boys just grabbed hold of the edge of the table and waited it out. Ever since the end of the Holy Grail war, Fuyuki had been having these small (3.0) quakes. At this point, people didn't even comment on them (especially since recently, they had been getting weaker and less frequent).

When it had passed, Shirou shrugged. "I'm going to take a year maybe two and travel around, see what needs fixing with the world." He felt adrift. He hadn't quite given up on the 'Hero of Justice' thing, but after the Grail War, he was wasn't certain that he didn't have what it took. And he also kept remembering how Rin had looked at him after it was all done. Saving people was a lot less gratifying if they looked at you with disgust. And there was the thing with Caster. Was she a good guy or a bad guy? "Maybe after that, I'll try for college, if I need extra education." Shirou knew that he was a mediocre student at best, so university wouldn't let him achieve his goals. "How about you? Are you still set on Tokyo University?"

"Yeah. I have an interview there next week. What about Tohsaka? Do you know what the witch's plans are?"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "We haven't talked much since she decided to get serious about her schoolwork, but I know she had wanted to go to a school in London. I expect she had no trouble getting in."

"Good luck to all of us!" Issei toasted Shirou with his apple juice.

"To us. It will be interesting to see where we all are in five years time."

* * *

.

Yes, there will be a sequel - I am already working on it. I am not certain if I will post it as a separate story, or just keep adding chapters to this one (I am leaning towards posting it as a separate fic).

What are your opinions on that?


	12. sequel

I have just posted the first chapter of the sequel. it is:

Lost – FSN: No route 2


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